DPRK Test: What About that Radionuclide Data?

ArmsControlWonk: DPRK Test: What About that Radionuclide Data?: "NHK and Yonhap have both reported on what Japan and South Korea have found in the atmosphere after the DPRK’s Monday test: bagel.

According to NHK:

Japan’s 47 prefectures say no radioactive substances have been detected at any measuring points in a survey conducted one day after North Korea’s claimed nuclear test.

The prefectures took samples of dust and rain from the air on Tuesday as part of an emergency government monitoring program.

They say the survey shows no trace of radioactive substances peculiar to a nuclear explosion, and that air radiation levels are normal.

Other government checks, including an air survey of radioactive substances from a Self-Defense Forces’ training plane, have also shown no unusual data."

It looks like they were too aggressive in their development, and their big test failed because of it.

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Sorry just won’t cover it. . . .

Sorry just won’t cover it. . . .: "British Medical Journal Lancet publishes a study on the number of Iraqi deaths caused by our invasion:

The death toll among Iraqis as a result of the US-led invasion has now reached an estimated 655,000, a study in the Lancet medical journal reports today.

The figure for the number of deaths attributable to the conflict - which amounts to around 2.5% of the population - is at odds with figures cited by the US and UK governments and will cause a storm, but the Lancet says the work, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, has been examined and validated by four separate independent experts who all urged publication.

In October 2004, the same researchers published a study estimating that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war since the beginning of the March 2003 invasion, a figure that was hugely controversial. Their new study, they say, reaffirms the accuracy of their survey of two years ago and moves it on."

(Via Martini Republic.)

Our Leader's crafty plan for North Korea

Our Leader's crafty plan for North Korea : "Don't despair over North Korea's nuclear test. It's part of Our Leader's plan to build a case for bombing Iran. That's why he waived North Korea's inspection requirements back in 2002:

In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors."

(Via Jesus' General.)

A BOMB OR A DUD?

A BOMB OR A DUD?: "There's something peculiar here. A geology professor at Yale, Jeffrey Park, emails to tell me that the updated Richter magnitude for the North Korea event is 3.5, which he calls "mighty small for a crude nuke." And that's true: it suggests a very small yield. But the odd thing is that it's actually harder to build a 1 kiloton weapon than a 5 or 10 kiloton weapon, and it's unlikely North Korea has the expertise to do this.

Was this a failed test? A 10 kiloton nuke that fizzled? Not a nuke at all? (The North Koreans seemed unusually insistent that there was absolutely no release of radiation.) Or what?

POSTSCRIPT: I should add that Jeff, who's an old high school friend of mine, stresses that 'My skepticism is not to be taken as a conclusion that North Korea is bluffing. A reliable detection of bomb-generated radionuclides would prove that they were not.' A paper he cowrote on the 1998 Indian nuclear test is here.

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Killing of Kremlin critic sparks freedom fears in Russia

Killing of Kremlin critic sparks freedom fears in Russia: "The international community has voiced its fears over freedom of expression in Russia. They are concerns shared by those who gathered in Moscow to mourn Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal critic of President Putin. On the sidelines of a major anti-Kremlin rally, Muscovites paid their respects to the reporter whose murder they are convinced is linked to her work.

...

'An atmosphere of hatred towards journalists has been created in this country, namely towards honest journalists such as Andrei Babitsky and Anna Politkovskaya and so now, however the government tries to justify itself, I doubt that President Putin will say anything about this killing,' he said."

(Via Google News.)