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The 2017 test had a yield in the low hundreds of kiloton, and is widely but not universally accepted as a thermonuclear test.
by jsmith99 6y ago
The 2017 test had a yield in the low hundreds of kiloton, and is widely but not universally accepted as a thermonuclear test.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y agoTrue, but no one knows for sure if NK knows how to weaponise a warhead to make it deliverable by missile.
- sneak 6y agoIs it even possible to build a fusion bomb that's "low hundreds of kiloton"? The first ever (and presumably smallest?) one the US ever did ("Ivy Mike") was two orders of magnitude larger than that (~10MT). There is no question that the DPRK has fission weapons, but ojbyrne asserted a thermonuclear attack, which I have never seen any indication is within the present or predictable future capabilities of the DPRK. Oh, hang on. It would appear the DPRK has actually made this claim, according to WP, but it seems to be disputed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon#North_Korea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon#North_Kor...
- jsmith99 6y ago> Is it even possible to build a fusion bomb that's "low hundreds of kiloton"? Yes, and in fact most thermonuclear devices nowadays are in that range as its more efficient than a smaller number of megaton range bombs. Eg the most common US warhead (fitted to Trident) is the 100 kiloton W76 and each Trident missile can carry 14 of them, each independently targeted.