'ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE' North Korea's Nuclear Test Site Has 'Collapsed'
Source: The Daily Beast
North Korea’s underground nuclear test site has become unusable after a large part of it collapsed, Chinese scientists say. Their evidence comes just one week after a surprise announcement from leader Kim Jong Un that North Korea would stop nuclear tests, with one researcher suggesting to the South China Morning Post that the collapse was the real reason for the unexpected suspension. The experts, led by researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, have warned that another blast in the same spot and with similar yield to one in September, which is believed to have caused the collapse, could lead to “environmental catastrophe.” “The occurrence of the collapse should deem the underground infrastructure beneath mountain Mantap not be used for any future nuclear tests,” said an abstract for the study.
READ IT AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/north-koreas-nuclear-test-site-has-collapsed?ref=home
= new reply since forum marked as read
He should send his main geologist, Ryan Zinke to make a report! 
Trinitite, also known as atomsite or Alamogordo glass, is the glassy residue left on the desert floor after the plutonium-based Trinity nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The glass is primarily composed of arkosic sand composed of quartz grains and feldspar ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitite
You are just like me and found a great board of very smart people.
I knew a Phoenix about 10 years ago. Not here.
(snips)
North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed. The collapse after five nuclear blasts may be why North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared last Friday that he would freeze the hermit state’s nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, one researcher said.
A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak. The test turned the mountain into fragile fragments, the researchers found.
The mountain’s collapse and the prospect of radioactive exposure in the aftermath, confirms a series of exclusive reports by the South China Morning Post on China’s fears that Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test had caused a fallout leak. Radioactive dust could escape through holes or cracks in the damaged mountain, the scientists said.
The mountain’s surface had shown no visible damage after four underground nuclear tests before 2017. But the 100-kilotonne bomb that went off on September 3 vaporised surrounding rocks with unprecedented heat and opened a space that was up to 200 metres (656 feet) in diameter, according to a statement posted on the Wen team’s website on Monday.
“We can put a thick layer of soil on top of the collapsed site, fill the cracks with special cement, or remove the pollutants with chemical solution,” he said. “There are many methods to deal with the problem. All they need [to do] is ask.”
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This thing could potentially send radioactive particles over South Korea, Japan, China and other nations in the area, depending on prevailing winds. Ground water runoff could also wind up in the sea.
This should take the steam out of tRump's bluster....but maybe not......
2 small shovels full of dirt on a tree yesterday.
Then gave them a piece of cloth off an old chair. I bet the French will love that.
After all, they only gave us the Statue Of Liberty!
in the collapse of the Soviet Union, so much so that it was the initiating theme of a "Star Trek" movie, "Undiscovered Country" and the "Only Nixon could go to China" association with Kirk.
Maybe North Korea has determined they just can't afford nuclear programs anymore - under the present sanctions. 
Time to game the buffoon in the White House. 
However, it is pretty damned difficult to hide releases of those daughter products when they are leaked. Remember Chernobyl? Everybody in the world was well aware of the accident well before the Soviets admitted it. In fact, the Soviets HAD to release the information because it had already been exposed by scientists all over the world.
Now Chernobyl was much, much worse of a situation than likely has occurred in the DPRK, however of the daughter products of Uranium fission, many are long lived. One just cannot keep such things secret for long.
Mr. Kim has undoubtedly been told this, and if that last greater than 100Kton explosion has resulted in their test site to collapse -- and I would be very surprised if it hadn't -- he knows that his nuclear test regime is finished.
Any intervention by the UN (IEAE) would have to negotiated with the DPRK, as I am not sure that they are on very friendly terms. However recent overtures certainly indicates that something has changed. Maybe something rather important. That certainly might be something like their last test going rather horribly wrong.
My opinion is that we're going to have to see. The wild card may very well be not Mr. Kim, but Mr. Drumpf. (Horrors!!!)
Thank you for your response.
Not being well versed on all of IAEA's activities, I was mainly interested in knowing if any agency automatically takes charge of ring-fencing an incident like this to plan a monitoring profile, install additional monitors as needed, and compile the data. I know there are nuclear monitors around the globe, but not sure of who is in charge of those. I do know as a comparison, for example, the global system of earthquake monitors are quite well coordinated.
Even when international inspectors are not allowed within the borders where an incident occurs, it seems in the public interest to track particle levels in areas outside the borders - particularly downwind and down-stream.
It would be interesting to read a summary of the on-site data the Chinese scientists collected - but we'll probably never see it.
......
