North Korea achieves Nuclear Fusion!

[TruePaige]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8676678.stm

North Korea has announced that it has made significant progress towards the development of thermo-nuclear power.

It is a claim that is likely to be met with some scepticism.
Despite hopes that the technology can produce large quantities of cheap, clean energy, no country has so far succeeded in making it work.
North Korea is one of the world's poorest countries and struggles to generate enough electricity for lighting and other basic needs.
The statement, carried by North Korea's official state media, said the country's scientists had succeeded in carrying out nuclear fusion.
Laboratory demonstrations of the process, known to release large amounts of energy, are nothing new.

But the North Koreans appear to be claiming to have gone much further, by building what they describe as a "unique thermo-nuclear reaction device".

'Highly unlikely'

The dream of overcoming the huge technical challenges to make nuclear fusion commercially viable has so far eluded scientists in Europe, America and China, but they continue to try because the prize is so great: a cheap and abundant source of energy with little environmental impact.
North Korea's claim that it has completed the fundamental research, putting the technology within its grasp, will be dismissed as highly unlikely unless concrete evidence is produced.

Pyongyang says its latest scientific breakthrough coincides with the birthday of the country's founder, and eternal president Kim Il-sung - not the first time it seems that the laws of nature have been bent in his honour.
According to official biographies, when his son, the current leader Kim Jong-il was born, a new star appeared in the sky.

Or...so they say.

It's not too difficult to achieve fusion with a net loss of power (though I'd put it beyond the North Koreans) but to achieve a positive output of power is a lofty claim and I'd have to say the largest proof that this hasn't happened is that if it had we would have it, one way or another.

But hey, what else can you expect of a country so blessed that when the current Dear Leader was born a star appeared out of nowhere.


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The thread has been closed because of attention to AzN vs the thread context.

While we were hoping that Azn might being a different viewpoint to the thread; he has chosen to attack people ignoring the thread subject. And people responded accordingly


Anandtech Moderator
Common Courtesy

 

[ElFenix]

The sheer force of light beaming from the Dear Leader's smile as he looked with favor down upon His People from the heights of Baekdu Mountain caused hydrogen atoms to be stripped from water and fuse together to form helium and greatly smote the imperialist powers with awesome will.

 

[TruePaige]

The sheer force of light beaming from the Dear Leader's smile as he looked with favor down upon His People from the heights of Baekdu Mountain caused hydrogen atoms to be stripped from water and fuse together to form helium and greatly smote the imperialist powers with awesome will.

The fire from the loins of Dear Leader burns brighter than the sun itself and all surrounding mass is either imbued with his infinite love and power or is itself ignited in a bright burn of energy that, while it could power the lighting and basic electrical systems of North Korea is instead put into that 1000w smile of Dear Leader so that he can inspire North Korea forward onto the path of a world power.

 

[dainthomas]

So that's who took it!

 

[TruePaige]

So that's who took it!

I saw that at Goodwill!

...Communist North Korean Plot to blow me up?

 

[sandorski]

If N Korea is a smoldering crater soon, perhaps they were close.

 

[gaidensensei]

승리

 

[CrackRabbit]

승리

I'm assuming that is Korean for "bullshit!". :awe:

 

[Lemon law]

This claim cannot possibly be from one of the North Korean fearless leaders gazzilion books he claims to have written.

Would Kim ever admit he was only merely close?

 

[PottedMeat]

I bet this is a byproduct of something General Kyong smuggled out of the ice sphere.


Oooh I wonder if we'll get some insightful commentary from AzN?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

The sheer force of light beaming from the Dear Leader's smile as he looked with favor down upon His People from the heights of Baekdu Mountain caused hydrogen atoms to be stripped from water and fuse together to form helium and greatly smote the imperialist powers with awesome will.

I'm waiting for AzN to post and tell us all how this MUST be true.

EDIT: Damn it! PottedMeat beat me to it!

 

[MotF Bane]

Somebody please commute AzN's suspension, we desperately need his wisdom on this topic.

 

[MotF Bane]

If N Korea is a smoldering crater soon, perhaps they were close.

 

[gaidensensei]

See the detrimental effects of banning the opposition? We want them to speak - same is boring, change is good.

In the end that just makes it so it's just everyone agreeing with each other and we don't have the verbal abuse for shits & giggles.

AzN, ATPN awaits your intelligent opposition!

I'm assuming that is Korean for "bullshit!". :awe:

It's actually the exact opposite.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Somebody please commute AzN's suspension, we desperately need his wisdom on this topic.

I'll second that request.

 

[sandorski]

What? You actually think they'd succeed at such a thing?

 

[Lemon law]

In the larger question, I find it easy to hate Kim Jong mentally ill. But at the same time I find it very difficult to hate the North Korean people, who not only have to deal with bad leadership, but also have to deal with persistent agricultural drought due to purely cyclical natural causes.

As for me, I prefer to think that time will heal all wounds if we are willing to be patient. The force may be with us now, the angel of death may soon be ready to remove the ole very sick Kim from the human gene pool, and dare we hope his successor will be far more rational. Its just super hard to think the the angel of death slum clearance will result in worse than what we have now?

Another of those why throw out the baby with the bath water questions.

 

[CrackRabbit]

See the detrimental effects of banning the opposition? We want them to speak - same is boring, change is good.

In the end that just makes it so it's just everyone agreeing with each other and we don't have the verbal abuse for shits & giggles.

AzN, ATPN awaits your intelligent opposition!


It's actually the exact opposite.

I know, hence the :awe:.

 

[JS80]

Paging azn

 

[ShawnD1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bomb

The first test of this principle was the "Ivy Mike" nuclear test in 1952, conducted by the United States. In the Soviet Union, the design was known as Andrei Sakharov's "Third Idea," first tested in 1955.

We should all congradurate our North Korean friends for discovering shit we knew HALF A CENTURY AGO.
We're totally fucked if they figure out the Haber–Bosch process and how to farm enough food to stop mass starvation.


ok I know a bomb is different from an actual power plant. We did that earlier as well. The only reason we don't do that on a mass scale is because it sucks. It takes almost as much power to create the materials as what you get out of it. We're pushing forward with the standard fission reactors because they've proven that they work great.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Somebody please commute AzN's suspension, we desperately need his wisdom on this topic.

Why don't you recruit him for over "there"?

 

[StageLeft]

If anyone can do it it's the NKeans. They've been at the forefront of technical progress for half a century now. Everything (almost) invented by them but the filthy raping oppressors steal it from them.

--

Our resident NK expert isn't active now, so I'm trying to fill in for him.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

In the larger question, I find it easy to hate Kim Jong mentally ill. But at the same time I find it very difficult to hate the North Korean people, who not only have to deal with bad leadership, but also have to deal with persistent agricultural drought due to purely cyclical natural causes.

As for me, I prefer to think that time will heal all wounds if we are willing to be patient. The force may be with us now, the angel of death may soon be ready to remove the ole very sick Kim from the human gene pool, and dare we hope his successor will be far more rational. Its just super hard to think the the angel of death slum clearance will result in worse than what we have now?

Another of those why throw out the baby with the bath water questions.

Kim won't be in power forever and the necessary force to remove him wouldn't automatically make things better. As for the North Koreans proper, I know no one who hates them. They are in a situation which sucks to no end.

 

[aka1nas]

The fire from the loins of Dear Leader burns brighter than the sun itself and all surrounding mass is either imbued with his infinite love and power or is itself ignited in a bright burn of energy.

Genital Herpes is a bitch.

 

[palehorse]

We should send in Team America to confirm this...