You may have noticed the headlines a few days ago and thought about the LENR implications: "Fusion Breakthrough Produces Abnormal Radiation Levels" until you read that N. Korea was the claimant.
And if you read closely and found that abnormal xenon levels have been detected, then a possible scenario becomes clearer, but it is dirty - very dirty and disturbing. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/South-Korea-Pyongyangs-Fusion-Brea kthrough-Produces-Abnormal-Levels-of-Radiation--96786184.html The first thing that came to my mind was that a fusion reaction doesn't produce xenon, which is a fission by-product. Since xenon was the evidence, this seems to be suggesting that North Korea might have tested a deuterium or LiD "boosted" device - which is a fission bomb that can be increased in yield by fusion. The fact SK did not mention krypton as well as xenon could also be important - at least as to the identity of a mystery component or technique. They could also have added a "layer-cake", with tritium or more ominous - a tritium/deuterium/(x) trigger, not a booster, which is something that even the US does not like to talk about. This speculative arrangement produces fusion -> fission -> fusion and possibly using moderately enriched fissile material instead of bomb grade, and apparently, it may not be as ultra-high tech as suspected. That would be a boosted fission layer, with a fusion secondary AND the key is a special trigger that is probably an array of exploding wires using metal hydrides where the (x) is a metal-hydride that is especially active with high energy neutrons and/or an electrical discharge. Instead of needing a gun-device, of an spherical imploding trigger - both of which are possibly too high tech for NK, since they require bomb grade fuel, they could have developed an "outside-in fusion trigger" arrangement based on exploding wires (dozens of them). Doubt it, but it is worth a mention. However, the South Korean government, if they are not trying to quell anxiety, has eliminated the possibility of any bomb or nuclear test, and states that there had been no unusual seismic activity. What could it be then - if there was no bomb at all? Well, in a country like N Korea, it could be a controlled meltdown device. Yikes. The poor peasants there will be cursed for centuries if such a scheme gets into the water table, which is the big risk since there is little real control in a meltdown. This might also explain the isotope anomaly with no krypton. The idea has been little explored in the West, except in Sci-Fi - but it could involve an space grid of trigger arrays of exploding wires, a core of low enriched material, barely subcritical but fully deuterated, with the aim of producing lots of plutonium as the main product of the reaction. It is possible that the gaseous isotope ration of Xe/Kr is skewed by such a meltdown. Even NK has chemists who can separate Pu from the melt, after it has cooled for a year or two in whatever cave they have used (probably near the border). Jones
