China steps up pace in new nuclear arms race with US and Russia as experts warn of rising risk...

[DonViejo]

Source: South China Morning

China steps up pace in new nuclear arms race with US and Russia as experts warn of rising risk of conflict

Chinese scientists are running simulated tests at a faster rate than America as world’s leading powers develop arsenal of ‘usable’ next-generation weapons

PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 May, 2018, 12:05pm
UPDATED : Monday, 28 May, 2018, 11:29pm

Stephen Chen

China is aggressively developing its next generation of nuclear weapons, conducting an average of five tests a month to simulate nuclear blasts, according to a major Chinese weapons research institute.

Its number of simulated tests has in recent years outpaced that of the United States, which conducts them less than once a month on average.

Between September 2014 and last December, China carried out around 200 laboratory experiments to simulate the extreme physics of a nuclear blast, the China Academy of Engineering Physics reported in a document released by the government earlier this year and reviewed by the South China Morning Post this month.

In comparison, the US carried out only 50 such tests between 2012 and 2017 – or about 10 a year – according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2147304/china-steps-pace-new-nuclear-arms-race-us-and-russia-experts-warn

[TimeSnowDemos]

1. I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but

I'm much more concerned about nuclear nations attacking non-nuclear one than nuclear war.

Nuclear proliferation is not... great... But... More people have died from superpowers feeling free to launch wars than from nuclear weapons.

[lapfog_1]

2. Direct result of this...

https://www.top500.org/lists/2017/11/

note that the Top 2 on the list are Sunway TaihuLight (peak 125 TFlops) and Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2, peak 55 Tflops).

You have to go down to number 5,6,7, and 8 on the Top500 list to find machines owned by the DOE. And their peak Tflop ratings are in the 20s. One of them does no classified work (nuclear simulations) that I know of.

We gave our chip foundries to the Chinese in the great "lets ship all of our dirty industries to China so we can move to a knowledge based economy and clean jobs" of the 1990s and 2000s. When we did that we neglected to note that they might go out and improve on our chips and make their own... only better.

[TomVilmer]

3. China 260 bombs. USA 4000 bombs...

China is not in any "nuclear arms race with US and Russia", since they are a dwarf in this area - and all those simulations does not change that. But it is a disgrace that China, Russia and USA now are developing a arsenal of so called "usable" next-generation nuclear weapons, heightening the possibility of their use.

[lapfog_1]

4. The simulation systems were sold to congress

so that the current arsenal could be safely maintained without the need to "test" (explode) warheads in underground experiments.

Simulation was considered the alternative to underground testing.

So, yeah, the simulation systems are important.

And nukes are so much about numbers... but effectiveness... in other words, to completely devastate the US for 100 years or more all one would need to to is detonate around 20 nukes at strategic places... and do it without being "bombed back to the stone age" themselves (unless you are a religious fanatic who doesn't care about such things like surviving the counter-strike).

We may not be in a arms race... but it would be good to "keep up with the joneses" in terms of simulations.

[TomVilmer]

5. If somebody nuked my country...

... the last thing on my mind would be retaliation. I would be too busy trying to help survivors in my own area, than to waste energy on destroying somebody else.