'Nuclear test' does not mean a fucking bomb exploded Trav any more than a 'fusion experiment' could be any more than test-tube level 'cold-fusion'.-- What is a subcritical experiment? There is still some confusion about what subcritical tests are and what they are not. It is clear that subcritical tests involve fissionable material and increase the multiplication of neutrons within the material above the natural background due to spontaneous fissions. A nuclear chain reaction stops after two or three `generations' of induced fissions. As a result the rate at which nuclear energy is released increases for a short time, but remains very tiny compared to the chemical explosive. The power released by the fissions stimulated by the compression of the plutonium remains even below the power generated by the alpha decay of the plutonium which is due to its natural half life. Thus, subcritical experiments comply with the US policy to go for a true zero-yield test ban, if one accepts that zero-yield in fact means almost-zero yield. Apparently it is not correct that these experiments are always hydronuclear experiments. In hydrodynamic experiments solid matter behaves like a liquid due to a shock wave which may for example be caused by a chemical explosion. If nuclear material is involved this is called hydronuclear experiment. Such tests could be conducted with nearly complete nuclear weapons except that the fissile pit is replaced by a mechanically equivalent part which is made for example out of depleted or natural uranium including a very small amount of fissile material. The fissile material content is kept low enough to ensure that the material does not become critical upon explosion of the surrounding chemical explosive.http://www.math.yorku.ca/sfp/subcritical.html--So it's likewise possible to create a subcritical nuclear test that also incorporates a fission component, in a 'layer-cake' core design, where one layer is a fusion component, and thus could obtain a small fusion yield as a proof-of-concept test. People don't realise that fusion doesn't actually start to occur when a certain magic T-P threshold is crossed, as that's only where it becomes sustainable, as in a star. In the real-world fusion is also probabilistic, and a subcritical nuclear test alters conditions toward the direction where its transient probability of occurring exits briefly.If their claims were true this would indicate the Norks and Iranians were collaborating on a boosted-yield single-stage fission-fusion-fission design. And that a fullscale test of a much higher yield munition could potentially occur, perhaps under an Iranian mountain test site next time.
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