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International-UN-NGOs
Where Those Reactors and Centrifuges Came From
2007-03-11
Splendid piece from the NYT, as it explains how the good Dr. Khan got his start. Really.
By Jeremy Bernstein

THE six-party agreement signed with North Korea last month should certainly be applauded as a necessary first step in improving relations with the United States. While a good deal of the North Korean program is shrouded in mystery — just this week the United States again urged the North Koreans to disclose any uranium-enrichment activities — there are some things we do know, including the nature and status of the country’s reactors.

North KoreaÂ’s one functioning reactor, at Yongbyon, uses natural uranium for fuel and graphite as its moderator (the substance that slows the neutrons and enhances the fission reaction). These are the same ingredients used in the first reactor ever designed, which was tested by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago in 1942. The best estimate is that Yongbyon has produced about 100 pounds of plutonium since it went into full operation in 1990. This is enough for six to eight nuclear bombs, depending on their design. (The North Koreans might have used about six kilograms in their Oct. 9 test.) The construction of the larger reactors North Korea was building was apparently already suspended, for various technical reasons, before the agreement.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  In 1974, India successfully tested a nuclear device, and PakistanÂ’s president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, put out a call to all the scientists in the Pakistani diaspora to return home and help make a bomb.


This is incorrect. Bhutto initiated the bomb program after the 1971 defeat, NOT after the 1974 Indian test. He famous "eat grass" speech was made in 1965.

As FAS notes --

Pakistan has been looking into the acquisition of nuclear weapons since the early-1960s. After Pakistan's defeat in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto vowed to retain a strategic balance with India, including the development of nuclear weapons, at any cost. `If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no alternative,' he said in 1965.

However, it took the humiliating defeat of 1971, when Indian forces occupied Eastern Pakistan and transformed it into an independent Bangladesh, to truly commit Pakistan to the acquisition of nuclear weapons. In the wake of that war, Mr. Bhutto assembled Pakistan's leading scientists in a tent in Multan in January 1972 where he delivered a passionate speech about the shame of defeat and how imperative is was for Pakistan to have nuclear weapons. Bringing up what seemed a note of caution, Mr. Bhutto pointed to a higher objective when he explained that `this is a very serious political decision, which Pakistan must take
Posted by: John Frum   2007-03-11 12:58  

#3  hey thanks for the lbs to kg thing. I got well confused.

Lets take down Dr. Kahn he seems to be the main culprit of all this.

- ONE NUCLEAR DEVISE IN THE WRONG HANDS IS A LIVING NIGHTMARE
Posted by: Devilstoenail   2007-03-11 07:48  

#2  Why start with pounds and then 2 sentences later talk in kilograms?
100 pounds = 45.5kg.
6kg = 13.2 pounds
Posted by: Gladys   2007-03-11 06:29  

#1  CHOSUN ILBO > US FORCES KOREA Cdr > Norkies believed to both plutonium + uranium-based programs, wid uranium prog capable = intended to produce shadow materials for nuke weapons. See also CHINA'S COLONIZATION OF NORTH KOREA, via large Chicom FDI's in NK > Presentation talking point - China wants USA to recognize NK as a de facto "tributary state" of China. before China will allow progress on Kimmies nucprogs; + PYONGYANG ENVOY SAYS CHINA USING NK FOR OWN AGENDA, vv concessions from USA. Says CHINA is true owner of Bank at center of international counterfeit controversy wid USA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-03-11 00:23  

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