North Korea has test-fired another nuke. So now the question is: How big was the Bomb?
Pyongyang's last nuclear weapons trial, you'll recall, was a dud. Early indications are that this one was more powerful -- maybe four kilotons, instead of the half-kiloton or so in the first try.
Still, that's nothing near the 10 to 20 kilotons estimate put forth by the Russians; that would make Kim Jong-Il's weapon about as strong as the ones dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
"We’ll have to wait for more analysis of the seismic data," notes Hans Kristensen at the Federation of American Scientists, "but so far the early news media reports about a 'Hiroshima-size' nuclear explosion seem to be overblown."
UPDATE: Fellow WIRED contributing editor Patrick DiJusto reminds us that "the explosive equivalent of a four kilotons nuke can and has been replicated using conventional explosives before, such as in operation Minor Scale. That generated 4.8 kilotons from ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil). "Are the North Koreans crazy enough to gather 4000 tons of ANFO in one place and set it off? We are led to think they are."
Meanwhile, MIT's Geoffrey Forden wonders whether the Nork nuke was a 20 kiloton designed that failed -- or a successful, itty-bitty nuke that worked as planned.
[Photo: via HowStuffWorks.com]
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