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(.#B.047).- North Korea, first Hydrogen bomb test - Archives.
North Korea is said to have passed its first H-bomb test: what is known about the world's nuclear arsenal.
January 7, 2016.
ARCHIVES
REUTERS
NUCLEAR - The condemnations are unanimous. North Korea claimed to have conducted this Wednesday, January 7, 2016 its first successful hydrogen bomb test, a claim that would increase, if verified, the stakes around the banned nuclear program of this sealed state.
The announcement of this test of an H-bomb is a surprise. Pyongyang says he was personally ordained by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un two days before his birthday. This test comes at a time when the world's nuclear arsenal is at the center of concerns, despite international legislation to regulate the production of nuclear weapons.
70 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made 140,000 and 74,000 dead respectively in August 1945, there are more than 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world revealed the Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) there a few months. This represents a devastating power far greater than that used by the United States in 1945.
Like the threats made by North Korea, but also the fear of Western countries to see one day Daesh acquire the atomic weapon. The recent and historic agreement on Iranian nuclear energy also reminded us how much this threat remains topical. Just over 70 years after Hiroshima, an update on the extent and firepower of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Who has nuclear weapons?
Regarding the atomic weapon, there are the official and the unofficial. On the side of the declared and assumed holders of nuclear warheads there are the United States, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and China. The five powers which sit permanently on the UN Security Council. Among the countries known to have the bomb without their official admission, there are Israel (whose arsenal is estimated by the Sipri Yearbook 2015 at 80 warheads), India (between 90 and 110 heads estimated), Pakistan (from 100 to 120 warheads) and North Korea whose fire capacity remains limited for the moment (8 estimated warheads). Here is the ranking of these powers according to their estimated nuclear arsenal.
All of this brings the number of operational nuclear weapons to 4,300, knowing that these are only estimates, the powers concerned having no interest in saying too much about their arsenal.
What power?
If the bombs of Hiroshima and Nakasaki have caused gigantic damage, the atomic bombs available to the current nuclear powers are much more powerful. As an example, the estimated power of Little Boy, released by the United States in 1945, is between 50 and 63 terajoules. The strongest bomb ever tested (Tsar Bomba by the USSR in 1961) had a power of 210,000 terajoules. Does that scare you? Wait to see what it would do concretely on a city like Paris. The Nukemap site allows you to compare the effects of bombs tested or claimed by the various nuclear powers on a map. Just enter its city, the type of bomb used, the type of impact and click on "detonate". Scary.
Note that Tsar Bomba was tested 54 years ago. Since then, technical progress, particularly with regard to the remote control of strikes or even the firing time, has made the arsenal of Western powers even more formidable.
A real threat today?
Several files make observers fear a nuclear danger. Most of the media remains the threat posed by North Korea, which is constantly trying to shake the very fragile balance on which the principle of "nuclear deterrence" is built, and which - according to him - taken another step this January 6th.
Another particularly hot issue is that of Iranian nuclear power. While the Shiite power defends its right to acquire a technology for its energy development, there are fears, Israel in mind, that this is a pretext to access the atomic weapon. Finally, the scenario of the acquisition of the atomic weapon by Daesh via Pakistan is clearly evoked today. However, this hypothesis remains not very credible, as Slate explains, even if the Western services redouble their vigilance.
Also, from a purely pragmatic point of view, whoever dares to use nuclear weapons against a Western country would de facto sign his death warrant. Under Article 5 of the NATO Charter, the attack on a signatory country would generate a chain reaction from the other member countries, which would lead, like a domino effect, to a total nuclear crisis. It is on the suicidal nature of such a scenario that the principle of "nuclear deterrence" rests.
F I N .
North Korea is said to have passed its first H-bomb test: what is known about the world's nuclear arsenal.
January 7, 2016.
ARCHIVES
REUTERS
NUCLEAR - The condemnations are unanimous. North Korea claimed to have conducted this Wednesday, January 7, 2016 its first successful hydrogen bomb test, a claim that would increase, if verified, the stakes around the banned nuclear program of this sealed state.
The announcement of this test of an H-bomb is a surprise. Pyongyang says he was personally ordained by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un two days before his birthday. This test comes at a time when the world's nuclear arsenal is at the center of concerns, despite international legislation to regulate the production of nuclear weapons.
70 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made 140,000 and 74,000 dead respectively in August 1945, there are more than 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world revealed the Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) there a few months. This represents a devastating power far greater than that used by the United States in 1945.
Like the threats made by North Korea, but also the fear of Western countries to see one day Daesh acquire the atomic weapon. The recent and historic agreement on Iranian nuclear energy also reminded us how much this threat remains topical. Just over 70 years after Hiroshima, an update on the extent and firepower of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Who has nuclear weapons?
Regarding the atomic weapon, there are the official and the unofficial. On the side of the declared and assumed holders of nuclear warheads there are the United States, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and China. The five powers which sit permanently on the UN Security Council. Among the countries known to have the bomb without their official admission, there are Israel (whose arsenal is estimated by the Sipri Yearbook 2015 at 80 warheads), India (between 90 and 110 heads estimated), Pakistan (from 100 to 120 warheads) and North Korea whose fire capacity remains limited for the moment (8 estimated warheads). Here is the ranking of these powers according to their estimated nuclear arsenal.
All of this brings the number of operational nuclear weapons to 4,300, knowing that these are only estimates, the powers concerned having no interest in saying too much about their arsenal.
What power?
If the bombs of Hiroshima and Nakasaki have caused gigantic damage, the atomic bombs available to the current nuclear powers are much more powerful. As an example, the estimated power of Little Boy, released by the United States in 1945, is between 50 and 63 terajoules. The strongest bomb ever tested (Tsar Bomba by the USSR in 1961) had a power of 210,000 terajoules. Does that scare you? Wait to see what it would do concretely on a city like Paris. The Nukemap site allows you to compare the effects of bombs tested or claimed by the various nuclear powers on a map. Just enter its city, the type of bomb used, the type of impact and click on "detonate". Scary.
Note that Tsar Bomba was tested 54 years ago. Since then, technical progress, particularly with regard to the remote control of strikes or even the firing time, has made the arsenal of Western powers even more formidable.
A real threat today?
Several files make observers fear a nuclear danger. Most of the media remains the threat posed by North Korea, which is constantly trying to shake the very fragile balance on which the principle of "nuclear deterrence" is built, and which - according to him - taken another step this January 6th.
Another particularly hot issue is that of Iranian nuclear power. While the Shiite power defends its right to acquire a technology for its energy development, there are fears, Israel in mind, that this is a pretext to access the atomic weapon. Finally, the scenario of the acquisition of the atomic weapon by Daesh via Pakistan is clearly evoked today. However, this hypothesis remains not very credible, as Slate explains, even if the Western services redouble their vigilance.
Also, from a purely pragmatic point of view, whoever dares to use nuclear weapons against a Western country would de facto sign his death warrant. Under Article 5 of the NATO Charter, the attack on a signatory country would generate a chain reaction from the other member countries, which would lead, like a domino effect, to a total nuclear crisis. It is on the suicidal nature of such a scenario that the principle of "nuclear deterrence" rests.
F I N .