World
  |
|
Yongbyon is central to NKorea nuke deal
AFP
SEOUL
Petroleumworld.com 04 12 07
North Korea's Yongbyon reactor -- the focus of international efforts to shut down its nuclear programme -- was ostensibly built to generate electricity but is not connected to any power lines.
Instead, experts say, it has produced enough plutonium for maybe a dozen nuclear weapons over its 20-year history.
Under the first stage of a February pact, the communist state should by April 14 have shut down and sealed the reactor and a reprocessing plant in the presence of UN inspectors.
That timeframe has slipped amid a row over frozen North Korean bank accounts, but negotiators are still pressing Pyongyang to start the process before Saturday.
The reactor, 96 kilometres (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, has a capacity of five megawatts and began operating in 1987.
It is too small to make much difference to the nation's acute power shortage and a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report in January said there were reportedly no power lines attached.
Nevertheless, the North demanded a high price in compensation for lost energy when it shut down Yongbyon under an October 1994 deal with the United States.
An international consortium started work on two proliferation-resistant light water reactors and the US provided an interim 500,000 tonnes a year of heavy fuel oil.
The "Agreed Framework" deal collapsed in 2002 when the US accused the North of running a covert highly enriched uranium programme. But its supporters say it succeeded in halting plutonium production at Yongbyon for eight years.
When the reactor is operational, the CRS report said, is can produce about six kilograms (13 pounds) of plutonium annually, enough for one small bomb.
US intelligence officials believe the North removed fuel rods for reprocessing into plutonium during a 70-day shutdown in 1989.
During a shutdown in May 1994, about 8,000 fuel rods were removed, enough for four to six nuclear weapons. The North said it removed a further 8,000 rods during another closure which began in April 2005.
US chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said Thursday the best estimates were that Yongbyon has produced 50-60 kilograms (110-132 pounds) of plutonium in all, enough for six to 12 bombs.
One aim of the latest agreement was "to prevent that 50-60 kg problem from becoming a 100 kg problem," he said.
AFP 12 0721 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels