According to the Hunan Post in the morning, based on measurements and analysis of shockwaves from explosions and data collected by more than 100 earthquake monitoring centers in China and other countries, researchers from the Chinese University of Science and Technology in Hop Phi, Anhui Province believe that North Korea's recent nuclear testing have been conducted at the same mountain in the Punggye-ri test site.
The research team was led by Mr. Wen Lianxing - a researcher who not only works in China but is also a professor of geology at Stony Brook University, New York, USA - and published information about the risk of the mountain in the Punggye-ri area collapsing on the website on September 4.
Wang Naiyan, a former chairman of the Chinese Nuclear Association and senior researcher on the country's nuclear weapons program, warned of the risk of serious environmental disasters if the findings published by Wen Lianxing's research team were reliable.
Another experiment could send the entire mountain down, leaving a hole where radiation could leak and drift across the region, affecting China. "If the mountain collapses and a terrible hole appears, it will lead to bad things," he said.
Mr. Wang explained that not every mountain is suitable for nuclear weapons testing. Suitable mountains must have peaks, but the mountain slopes are relatively comfortable. In fact, North Korea may not have too many suitable peaks to choose from.
Wang Naiyang said that the mountain in the Punggye-ri nuclear test site will continue to stand firm for as long as possible depending on where North Korea planted bombs during the tests. "If the bombs were placed at the bottom of the standing tunnels, the explosions would cause less damage," he said.
However, building a standing tunnel is very difficult and expensive. Setting cables and sensors to collect data from the explosion would also be difficult. A level tunnel will be easier but increases the risk of " blowing" the top of the mountain. In addition, the increasing size of North Korea's nuclear bombs also makes the above risk even greater.
"A 100- kiloton bomb is a fairly large bomb. Pyongyang should stop the tests because they pose a major threat not only to North Korea but also to other countries, especially China," he said.
Professor Wen Lianxing's research team estimated that in North Korea's 6th nuclear test, the thermal bomb had a destructive power of up to 108.3 kiloton, 7.8 times more than the US nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima City, Japan in 1945.
Meanwhile, a group of Norwegian scientists estimated the energy of the Punggye-ri test on September 3 to be 10 times more than that of the US nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
