Local groups react to nuclear test

When North Korea launched its third nuclear test last week, IU seismic equipment detected the blast from more than 6,000 miles away.

“It’s a very frightening prospect for the world, to have a relatively unstable and nuclear armed state with not only the capability to attack neighbors, but to also spread nuclear weapons to states around the world,” professor of geological sciences Michael Hamburger said. “This is just one more step towards a nuclear, unstable world.”

Hamburger is part of the team that created OIINK- Ozarcs, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, a research collaboration aimed at understanding North America’s continental structure.

“We have a seismic experiment that’s in progress that involves deployment of about 70 highly sensitive seismic stations,” Hamburger said. “They were able to detect the nuclear explosion because they pick up seismic waves.”

The North Korean blast was right on the threshold of levels detectable by OIINK equipment, he said. From 10,000 km away, the blast produced seismic energy equivalent to a magnitude 5.1 earthquake.

Nuclear explosions are measured in kilotons, equal to the power of 1,000 tons of TNT.
Hamburger said he believes the North Korean test was in the 3 to 6 kiloton range, compared to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which was in the 14 to 16 kiloton range

“But what is important is that it was significantly larger than the first test they did,” he said.

Rita Lichtenburg, co-founder of Bloomington Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, stressed the need for vigilant diplomacy with North Korea.

“We are strongly for continued communication,” Lichtenburg said. “It is something that has to be carefully handled.”

The group has not been emphasizing North Korean nuclear weapons. Rather, it has recently focused discussions on drones and American military bases around the world.

“There’s so many things happening, it’s hard to know where to put your energy,” Lichtenburg said. “War and peace issues are so basic.”

David Keppel, a member of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and co-chair of the Just Peace Task Force of Unitarian Universalist Church, said he doesn’t welcome any country having nuclear weapons.

“The truth of this has been the same ever since 1945. As long as we have nuclear weapons, other countries are going to want them, too,” Keppel said. “When the big boys have them, the other kids in the school yard will want them.”

Keppel said the solution is to work toward what is known as a ‘global zero’— a nuclear weapons free world.

“It’s always dangerous when another country has nuclear weapons,” he said. “These are indefensible weapons. They are weapons that cause such havoc.”

The path to nuclear disarmament in North Korea will not be easy, he said.

“Not every problem in the world has a neat solution,” Keppel said. “Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is show a certain amount of restraint and caution to avoid conflict. We’re probably not going to be able to get them to completely give up their nuclear program. There might be forms of transparency that, in the long run, we could enforce.”

He said the United States shouldn’t continue to belong to a “nuclear club” with only
certain nations allowed to join.

“If these weapons remain in our arsenals, the truth is they will be used at some point,” he said. “There are only two paths the world can take in the long run. One is nuclear proliferation. The other is nuclear disarmament.”