Where are the headlines? Where is the anti-nuclear movement? How is it that this gets ignored? How is it that attempted coups in Saudi Arabia can come and go, unreported?
North
Korean Nuclear Test Site Has Collapsed, Explaining Kim's "Suspension"
Of Further Tests
25
April, 2018
It
finally happened.
Six
months after a group of Chinese scientists warned that
the North Korean Punggye-ri nuclear test site was on the verge of
collapse, and following reports
from Japan's Asahi TV that
more than 200 North Koreans had died when a tunnel collapsed at the
test site, the South
China Morning Post reported
today that North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has completely
collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented
risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese
scientists studying the issue have confirmed.
The collapse also likely explains the sudden willingness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to declare last Friday that he would freeze the state’s nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, a researcher cited by the SCMP said.
At
least five of North Korea's last six nuclear tests all took place
under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North
Korea’s northwest; in the process they unleashed artificial
earthquakes and destabilized the mountain to the point of no return.
According
to the SCMP report, a group of researchers found that the most recent
blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon
itself. A second group concluded that
the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive
fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.
A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded that the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak. The test turned the mountain into fragile fragments, the researchers found.
The
mountain’s collapse, and the prospect of radioactive exposure in
the aftermath, confirms a series of exclusive reports by the South
China Morning Post on China’s fears that Pyongyang’s latest
nuclear test had caused a fallout leak. The scientists warned that
radioactive dust could escape through holes or cracks in the damaged
mountain.
“It
is necessary to continue monitoring possible leaks of radioactive
materials caused by the collapse incident,” Wen’s team said in
the statement.
As the SCMP notes, the official findings will be published on the website of the peer-reviewed journal, Geophysical Research Letters, likely next month.
North
Korea saw the mountain as an ideal location for underground nuclear
experiments because of its elevation – it stood more than 2,100
meters (6,888 feet) above sea level – and its terrain of thick,
gentle slopes that seemed capable of resisting structural damage.
While
the mountain’s surface had shown no visible damage after four
underground nuclear tests before 2017, the
100-kilotonne bomb that went off on September 3 vaporised surrounding
rocks with unprecedented heat and opened a space that was up to 200
metres (656 feet) in diameter,
according to a statement posted on the Wen team’s website on
Monday.
And
as shock waves tore through and loosened more rocks, a large section
of the mountain’s ridge, less than half a kilometre (0.3 mile) from
the peak, slipped
down into the empty pocket created by the blast, leaving a scar
visible in satellite images.
Wen concluded that the mountain had collapsed after analysing data
collected from nearly 2,000 seismic stations.
Three small earthquakes that hit nearby regions in the wake of the collapse added credence to his conclusion, suggesting the test site had lost its geological stability.
A
second team led by Liu Junqing at the Jilin Earthquake Agency with
the China Earthquake Administration in Changchun reached similar
conclusions to the Wen team.
The “rock collapse … was for the first time documented in North Korea’s test site,” Liu’s team wrote in a paper published last month in Geophysical Research Letters. The breakdown not only took off part of the mountain’s summit but also created a “chimney” that could allow fallout to rise from the blast centre into the air, they said.
Zhao
Lianfeng, a researcher with the Institute of Earth Science at the
Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said the two studies
supported a consensus among scientists that “the site was wrecked”
beyond repair. “Their findings are in agreement to our
observations,” he said. “Different teams using different data
have come up with similar conclusions,” Zhao said. “The only
difference was in some technical details. This is the best guess that
can be made by the world outside.”
As
we reported previously, speculation grew that North Korea’s site
was in trouble when Lee Doh-sik, the top North Korean geologist,
visited Zhao’s institute about two weeks after the test and met
privately with senior Chinese government geologists. Although the
purpose of Lee’s visit was not disclosed, two days later Pyongyang
announced it would no longer conduct land-based nuclear tests.
Hu
Xingdou, a Beijing-based scholar who follows North Korea’s nuclear
programme, said it was highly likely that Pyongyang had received a
stark warning from Beijing.
“The
test was not only destabilising the site but increasing the risk of
eruption of the Changbai Mountain,” a large, active volcano at
China-Korean border, said Hu, who asked that his university
affiliation not be disclosed for this article because of the topic’s
sensitivity.
The
mountain’s collapse has likely dealt a huge blow to North Korea’s
nuclear programme, Hu said.
Hit
by crippling international economic sanctions over its nuclear
ambitions, the country might lack sufficient resources to soon resume
testing at a new site, he said. “But there are other sites
suitable for testing,” Hu said. “They must be closely monitored.”
Guo
Qiuju, a Peking University professor who has belonged to a panel that
has advised the Chinese government on emergency responses to
radioactive hazards, said that if fallout escaped through cracks, it
could be carried by wind over the Chinese border.
“So
far we have not detected an abnormal increase of radioactivity
levels,” Guo said. “But we will continue to monitor the
surrounding region with a large [amount] of highly sensitive
equipment and analyse the data in state-of-the-art laboratories.”
Zhao
Guodong, a government nuclear waste confinement specialist at the
University of South China, said that the North Korean government
should allow scientists from China and other countries to enter the
test site and evaluate the damage.
* *
*
It
remains unclear what if any impact the news will have on Trump's
eagerness to sit down with Kim and discuss a denculearization of
North Korea, if it emerges that the rogue nation only agreed to
negotiate because it no longer had the ability to conduct further
tests, and thus had no more leverage, as opposed to a voluntary
decision by Kim Jong Un.
A similar issue manifest at Mururoa Atoll when a nuclear device jammed in the drill hole intended to insert the device below the reef. The French detonated the device fracturing a portion of the reef.
ReplyDelete"A major accident occurred on July 25, 1979 when a test was conducted at half the usual depth because the nuclear device got stuck half way down the 800 metre shaft. It was detonated and caused a large submarine landslide on the southwest rim of the atoll, causing a significant chunk of the outer slope of the atoll to break loose and causing a huge tsunami. The blast caused a 2 kilometre long and 40 cm wide crack to appear on the atoll."
https://watchers.news/2012/08/19/leaked-report-raised-fears-of-radioactive-tsunami-if-mururoa-atoll-in-french-polynesia-collapses/