Jed Rothwell wrote:
Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
>No. As I suggested, trace amounts of radioactive material migrate out
>via the instrument leads. See:
>
>http://www.slate.com/id/2151214/nav/tap2/
Even if small amounts of radioactive material did come out via the
instrument leads, or even through cracks in the ground, I still
fail to see how this could be detected in Hokkaido.
The prevailing winds would carry radioactive isotopes directly to
Hokkaido. Mizuno feels they could not miss them, even with an
underground test. Also, I am sure there are spy planes prowling the sky
closer to the test site at this moment. I have seen no announcements
confirming the isotopes. Despite the New York Times I still suspect it
is a hoax. One should not always trust the Times.
On my third hand ;) , we only have reports on the news that any of
this happened at all. Perhaps the whole thing is a planted story
to make the North Koreans look bad?
The North Koreans want to look bad. That's the weird part.
If it is a hoax, they have fooled the Chinese government, and enraged
it. Since they depend on that government for survival, it seems like a
stupid thing to do.
Of course, this assumes the Chinese are really upset. Having NK being a
nuclear power to distract attention from what the Chinese are doing
would be a clever ploy. We shall have to wait to see what the Chinese
actually do to NK.
Ed
- Jed
