South Korea Detects Radioactive Xenon Gas After N. Korea Fusion Boast

“Oh, you all laughed at me then!” he hissed, diabolically:

Abnormal radiation was detected near the inter-Korean border days after North Korea claimed last month to have achieved a nuclear technology breakthrough, South Korea’s Science Ministry said Monday. [AP, Hyung-Jin Kim]

The radiation detected was in the form of xenon gas, in levels eight times higher than normal. Given that none of North Korea’s known nuclear sites is near the DMZ, you have to assume that the plume dissipated considerably before it drifted that far south.

A fusion test must be conducted at extremely high levels of pressure and temperature inside a reactor and scientists form such an environment by detonating a uranium-based bomb, said nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of South Korea’s Kyung Hee University.

All of the North Korean reactors of which I’m aware, save the unfinished KEDO project, are within a 15-mile radius of Yongbyon.

Xenon does not occur as such levels naturally, which leaves just three alternative explanations. One of these is a nuclear bomb test, which can be ruled out by the absence of any significant seismic event at that time. The second, which has not been ruled out, is that the plume drifted in from China or Russia. Then there is a third possibility:

Since nuclear fusion is the core process in hydrogen bombs, there is speculation that the North actually ran a small-scale nuclear test to develop the technology at the time. [….]

A nuclear expert said fusion technology normally uses magnetic fields or laser beams to compress tritium. “But an atomic bomb is used to compress the tritium in hydrogen bombs. If xenon was detected, it must have been produced in such a process.”

But Seoul is skeptical about the veracity of Pyongyang’s announcement, saying the North doesn’t have the expensive test reactor needed for nuclear fusion, and the claim that it has succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction for power generation is implausible since no country has yet managed to put fusion-based power generation to commercial use. [Chosun Ilbo]

Like everything that’s reported about North Korea’s WMD development, firm conclusions are impossible and may never be possible. But whether it turns out there’s anything to this report or not, this principle still holds true: every day this regime continues to exist increases the risk that it proliferates some ghastly technology or substance to God-only-knows who.