The 2009 explosion was several times as large as the 2006 explosion, so it seems unlikely both came from the same kind of reliably working device. The yield variability points to test versions of plutonium bombs, where they are working on gradually improving the symmetry of the chemical implosion needed to get a proper nuclear detonation of the plutonium.FBM wrote:Ian, from what I've read, the technology required to make a nuke small enough to put on a missile is considerably more difficult than what it takes to simply make a bang, and they've only make a couple of small bangs so far...which is why I suspect that those bangs may have been of the backpack variety. The estimations of their TNT tonnage are eerily similar, don't you think?
Note that uranium bombs have no such complexities, and are also much more easily made small enough to fit in a missile.