CTBT - IMS.

This is coolbert:

Of course, the hot button item on CNN and all the other news networks today is the purported North Korean nuclear test.

Announced by the mad-man of Pyongyang himself today.

A NUCLEAR WEAPONS TEST. NOT just the test of a DEVICE. But of a weapon. Deployable and ready to go NOW!

It is also amazing to me to read the instantaneous and seemingly off-the-cuff-comments made by the governments of the nations closest physically to North Korea.

Such as:

* This was a detonation of about 500 tons - - South Korea. [battlefield size nuke]

* This was the detonation of a neutron bomb - - Communist China. [enhanced radiation weapon]

* This was a detonation of about 15 kilotons - - Russia. [Hiroshima size weapon]

Well, what is it??!!

Judgments and pronouncements of this nature at this time are probably not warranted or advisable until all the data is in.

Judgments and analysis based upon data from the nuclear monitoring systems of the various concerned nations AND the IMS [International Monitoring System].

The latter, 337 stations located throughout the planet. Designed to detect and monitor a nuclear detonation, anywhere in the world. Quite an impressive system.

Uses four methods to detect nuclear bursts:

* Seismic. [shock waves from the burst create earthquake-like seismic activity.]

* Infra-sound. [long distance traveling sub-audio sound waves created by the nuke.]

* Hydro-acoustic. [under-water detonation creates sound waves detectable too.]

* Radio-nuclide. [minute radioactive particles carried into the upper atmosphere.]

A monitoring system, however, that would seem to be faulty. A system that has been designed, from what I surmise, with the intent of detecting 1950's style nuclear testing. That is to say, above-ground detonations. To my knowledge, NO ONE TESTS THIS WAY ANYMORE! Nuclear powers that still test, and I am not sure who they are any more, will either dig a deep mine shaft or a tunnel into the side of a mountain, and detonate the weapon UNDERGROUND.

UNDERGROUND testing as currently done seems to obviate three of the four methods used to detect nuclear detonations.

With underground tests, you will not have infra-sound, hydro-acoustic, or radio-nucleids.

You will still have seismic detection, but that is all. Maybe that is ENOUGH.

[American Vela satellites that have been orbiting the earth for forty years or so now ALSO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT THE CURRENT NORTH KOREAN TEST, IF IT DID OCCUR. LOOKS FOR THE LIGHT FLASH OF A NUCLEAR BURST ABOVE GROUND. OBVIOUSLY, YOU WILL HAVE NO LIGHT FLASH IF THE BURST IS BELOW GROUND!!]

It has even been suggested that seismic detection of a nuclear detonation could be "gotten-around" by submerging your nuke in a large lake. If you did have on your national territory a lake of sufficient size, you could suspend the nuclear bomb in the water and detonate. The damping effect of the water would possibly be enough to attenuate seismic waves to the point where detectors COULD NOT PICK UP THE DETONATION!!??

Being that nuclear powers [with the exception of Israel] seem TO WANT potential adversaries to know they have THE BOMB, defeating the IMS would seem to be counter-productive.

OR IS IT!!??

coolbert.