How Nuke-Sniffing Air Force Planes Are Hunting for North Korea’s H-Bomb

latterly last nighttime , North Korea said itsuccessfully tested a hydrogen bomb , triggering a mini , homo - made temblor near the test site and cause the UN Security Council tocall an emergency meeting . H bombsare even more destructive than atomic bombs , so it ’s very scary — but expert think North Korea ’s bluffing . How can we ensure ? atomic debris - sniffing airplanes , duh .

The aircraft render above is a WC-135W Constant Phoenix — also have sex as a “ sniffer plane . ” Its task ? Fly across the Pacific to the Korean Peninsula and search for nuclear particulate in the zephyr . Doing so could support ( or debunk ) North Korea ’s goodly , terrifying claims once and for all .

Never try of sniffer planes ? Their story traces back to the first and only country to use nuclear bombs as weapon , just a couple years after the attacks on Japan : post - global War II America .

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After the war in 1947 , General Dwight Eisenhower tasked the Air Force ( then known as the “ Army Air Forces ” ) to track any atomic explosions across the world , to keep tabs on which countries are pursuing the mortal technology .

They started using aircraft called sniffer aeroplane , and just two years later , in September 1949 , one on patrol between Alaska and Japan picked up nuclear debris left behind after Russia ’s first atomic bomb test . Even scarier ? At the time , it was n’t expected that Russia could accomplish a atomic artillery until at least the mid ’ fifty . you may see how sniffer plane became significant , tight .

And so began the US Air Force ’s “ atmospheric collection program . ” The planes , which are build to act as a gravid hazmat lawsuit to protect work party , fly through region of suspected nuclear activity ; they have extraneous twist that catch particulates on filter newspaper that are later take apart .

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In support of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 , sniffer planes have continued to routinely to make rounds the world over , from the North and South Poles to East Asia . Sniffer plane were also handy in tracking harmful particulates in the breeze around Chernobyl follow the nuclear fallout in that region in 1986 . Theywere also sentto Japan after 2011 ’s Tohoku temblor and tsunami , which contribute to the Fukushima atomic crisis .

Today , however , the Washington Postreportsthat the Pentagon confirmed yesterday that a sniffer aeroplane has been murder to North Korea — the same country that touts its nukes in front of alien pressin a national parade , and whose technology expert doubt is up to snuffle enough to get a hydrogen bomb . The zephyr sample brought back by the Constant Phoenix will help us decide if this hebdomad ’s burst was actually what North Korea state theme say it was .

[ Washington Post ]

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