-
-
North Korea Makes Plutonium Threat
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Tuesday that it had stopped disabling its main nuclear complex, and threatened to restore facilities there that the North has used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
For months, U.S. experts and North Korean engineers have been disabling key facilities at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, in a move that temporarily shut down the North’s only known source of plutonium. If the North rebuilds the facilities, it would nullify a major foreign policy achievement of President Bush.
North Korea often issues strident warnings as a negotiating tactic. Nonetheless, the latest declaration dimmed Mr. Bush’s hopes of achieving a breakthrough in the North’s nuclear disarmament before he leaves office in January.
“We have decided to immediately suspend disabling our nuclear facilities,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency, KCNA. “This measure has been effective on Aug. 14 and related parties have been notified of it.”
The spokesman accused Washington of not keeping its promise to take the North off a terrorism blacklist. The United States first wants North Korea to agree to a comprehensive method of checking whether it withheld information in a report on its past nuclear activities.
Work started at Yongbyon late last year to disable a nuclear reactor, along with a factory that produces fuel for the reactor and a laboratory that can extract plutonium from spent fuel rods unloaded from the reactor. The North demolished the reactor’s cooling tower in June.
The North would need at least a year to restart the disabled facilities, experts said.
Disabling the complex does not meet Washington’s ultimate goal of dismantling it. The United States wants full access by inspectors to all suspected nuclear sites in the secretive Communist country to ensure that there are no hidden nuclear assets.
The North bristled at this demand. “The U.S. is gravely mistaken if it thinks it can make a house search in our country as it pleases, just as it did in Iraq,” the North Korean spokesman said.
He said North Korea was still technically at war with the United States because the 1950-53 Korean War had ended only in a cease-fire. He added that asking the North to give up its nuclear programs while it was not allowed similar inspections in South Korea, to make sure that there are no U.S. nuclear weapons there, amounted to “a gangster’s demand.”
The North has sought for years to have Washington remove Pyongyang from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. If removed, the impoverished North would be able to benefit from cheap international finance. A longer-term goal for the North is to sign a peace treaty with Washington. Many experts say the North will not give up its nuclear weapons until it reaches a peace treaty.
Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem, said he had no immediate comment on the North Korean report, according to Reuters. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Tuesday that it had stopped disabling its main nuclear complex, and threatened to restore fac... more -
Plutonium leaks at Austrian plant
There has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria.
UN nuclear monitors said pressure had built up and plutonium had contaminated a storage-room at the Seibersdorf laboratory, south of Vienna. Last year the head of the IAEA warned the facility was outdated and did not meet UN safety standards. Austrian officials said the empty lab had been sealed off and no-one was at risk. An investigation is planned.
The lab is used to carry out tests on samples taken during IAEA inspection missions. "Pressure build-up in a small sealed sample bottle in a storage safe resulted in plutonium contamination of a storage room... at the IAEA's Safeguards Analytical Laboratory in Seibersdorf," said the agency. The leak, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday, automatically set off an alarm via an air-monitoring system, said Daniel Kapp, a spokesman for Austria's environment ministry. He added that radioactivity in the air would have been completely contained by the lab's filters, and Austrian monitoring centres had detected no increase in radioactivity, meaning no-one was in danger.
Last November, IAEA director general Mohammed El Baradei said the site, constructed in 1970, did not meet UN safety standards. He warned there was an "ever-growing risk" key components of the lab might break down, although the IAEA said there was no connection between Sunday's leak and the modernisation requirements. There has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria. ... more -
Nuclear energy - 'The Eyes of Nye'
Bill Nye explores the ramifications of nuclear energy and its waste.
You might remember Bill Nye from his show Bill Nye the Science Guy on PBS. This is a show somewhat like that but geared for adults (kind of). Bill Nye explores the ramifications of nuclear energy and its waste. ... more -
US thinks N.Korea aided Syria on plutonium program
The Bush administration is expected to tell U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that it believes North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
The White House has said little about the question of any North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria since Israel conducted a mysterious Sept. 6 air strike inside Syria that media reports said was aimed at a nuclear site built with Pyongyang's help.
"The sense is that the Syrians, with the help of the North Koreans, were attempting to build an undeclared facility that could indeed produce plutonium," said the official, who spoke on condition he not be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, of the congressional briefings' likely content. The Bush administration is expected to tell U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that it believes North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear ... more -
Hanford ships 1,000 pounds of plutonium to New Mexico
More than 1,000 pounds of plutonium waste from the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state have been shipped to a national repository in New Mexico. It is the 400th shipment of waste, according to a Department of Energy and Fluor Hanford announcement on Wednesday, April 9, 2008.
The waste comes from plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons, and includes contaminated building debris and laboratory materials. More waste transfers will continue to leave the Hanford site for storage in New Mexico.
Photo: Wikipedia.com. More than 1,000 pounds of plutonium waste from the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state have been shipped to a national rep... more -
White House accused of 'exaggerating' a nuclear threat... again
The US claims North Korea is a nuclear threat, part of an "axis of evil". But following Pyongyang's first disclosure about its nuclear program recently, international nuclear experts are questioning the White House's claims and accuse them of exaggerating –– "just like they did with Iraq before the 2003 invasion."
North Korea has admitted it has 30kg of plutonium –– enough for six bombs –– but that's at the low end of the scale, leading experts to wonder what the extent of the threat posed by a country whose only nuclear test is generally thought to have flopped.
According to this article, the US's nuclear assessment of North Korea echoes that of Iraq in many points, except for the fact that it hasn't led to war. But there is one big difference between America's two enemies, according to Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector for Iraq: "In North Korea, there was plutonium. The Iraqis had nothing." But he, too, said that the hardliners in the Bush administration "have all the time wanted to hype things, because they ride on scare." The US claims North Korea is a nuclear threat, part of an "axis of evil". But following Pyongyang's first disclosure ab... more -
Nuclear Waste: Achilles' Heel of the Fake Green Technology
As Nuclear Waste Languishes, Expense to U.S. Rises
WASHINGTON — Forgotten but not gone, the waste from more than 100 nuclear reactors that the federal government was supposed to start accepting for burial 10 years ago is still at the reactor sites, at least 20 years behind schedule. But it is making itself felt in the federal budget.
Each reactor typically creates about 20 tons of waste a year, which is approximately two new casks, at roughly $1 million each. If a repository or interim site opened, clearing the backlog would take decades, experts say. At present, waste is in temporary storage at 122 sites in 39 states.
"Accelerating Hanford Cleanup"
http://www.archive.org/details/acc300
The first two minutes of "Accelerating Hanford Cleanup" are eye opening and the amount of radioactive waste and work needed there is staggering.
NO NEW NUKES. As Nuclear Waste Languishes, Expense to U.S. Rises ... more -
NO NEW NUKES
We have to stop the push for nuclear power, Greenpeace can help play a big part.
-
365 Reasons to Oppose Nuclear Power
"In the beginning was the will to destroy. The main motive in
developing nuclear technology was to optimise a bomb with a
destructive potential which put everything known before it in the
shade. Death and destruction have been accompanying not only the
nuclear bomb since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also the commercial
use of nuclear power. This technology cannot be controlled, and dozens
of accidents have again and again proven its destructive nature. Every
fire from a cable, every burst pipe, can within minutes make a nuclear
power plant into a nuclear nightmare. It was only a question of time
before this would actually happen. It finally did, at 1.23 a.m. on
26 April 1986"
Excerpt from Greenpeace's 365 Reasons to oppose nuclear Power "In the beginning was the will to destroy. The main motive in developing nuclear technology was to optimise a bomb with a ... more
-
related topics
Plutonium
Contributors (28)
Plutonium
