| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| N. Korea Seen Working on New Reactor |
| 2010-11-19 |
| New satellite images of a North Korean nuclear site and a recent visit to the North by two American experts suggest that Pyongyang has started work on a new reactor. Well sure, after all they tore down the old one ... The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based nuclear research group, said it has obtained photographs showing "construction activity at the site of the destroyed cooling tower for the disabled reactor" at Yongbyon. Charles L. Pritchard, a former special envoy for negotiations with North Korea who is the president of the Korea Economic Institute, toured the Yongbyon site during a five-day trip to North Korea earlier this month. He was told by North Korean officials that they were building an experimental light water reactor. Mr. Pritchard was accompanied by Siegfried S. Hecker emeritus director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory. Mr. Hecker told the security institute that "the new construction seen in the satellite imagery is indeed the construction of the experimental light water reactor." Light water reactors are typically used to generate electricity for civilian purposes and are considered relatively safe in terms of proliferation risks. Experts at the institute estimated that a new reactor with a capacity of about 30 megawatts would require several tons of low enriched uranium to start up, and another ton every year as "reloads." The new structure -- reinforced concrete foundations and a steel frame -- was still in its early stages. The expected completion date would likely be before April 15, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founding president of the North Korean state. Mr. Hecker, co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and Robert Carlin, a former State Department policy adviser and former C.I.A. analyst, are scheduled to report their findings on the North Korean nuclear program on a panel discussion at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington on Tuesday. A notice on the institute's Web site says they will discuss the North's plans to develop a 100-megawatt light water reactor. But in previous news reports Mr. Hecker said he was told by North Korean officials that the reactor would be 25 megawatts to 30 megawatts in capacity. And being the NYTimes, here comes the dig to President Bush Under the terms of a 1994 deal, North Korea was to receive a pair of 1,000-megawatt light water reactors built by an international consortium in exchange for shuttering its plutonium program at Yongbyon. But the reactors were never built. The project had trouble with financing, construction lagged and the program began to break down. It effectively ended after President George W. Bush included North Korea in the "axis of evil" speech in 2002 and Washington accused Pyongyang of secretly enriching uranium. Western scientists believe North Korea has small stores of plutonium, enough for about six nuclear bombs, although it remains unclear whether it has successfully weaponized the plutonium. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #3 Gotta be tough to sirvive as as a Norkie > they're caught between historical, NORCOM-specific promises of KOREAN SOVEREIGNTY + NATIONALISM [NOT Chinese, etal.], WHILE ALSO NOT DOING TO ANYTHING TO INDUCE A MAJOR [PLA-led]TAKEOVER OF THE DPRK BY BEIJING, or in the alternate NON-KORCOMMIES, ETC. [BIGGER, HARDER, DEEPER "ROCK + HARD PLACE" here]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-11-19 18:14 |
| #2 Oh Gee! Why I so surprised!??! /sarc |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-11-19 11:08 |
| #1 Yup, and they're still begging for free food,If we give them any, we're damn fools. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-11-19 10:49 |