Posted on 11/30/2007 5:57:21 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
North Korea nuclear fuel rods tough to extract: envoy
Fri Nov 30, 3:32 AM ET
The removal of fuel rods from an ageing reactor at the heart of North Korea's nuclear arms program, an important step in a disarmament deal, will stretch into next year, South Korea's nuclear envoy said on Friday.
North Korea agreed with regional powers to disable its Soviet-era reactor and other nuclear facilities by the end of this year in exchange for aid and an end to its international ostracism.
"A lot of preparation is needed to get the fuel out of there," Chun Yung-woo told reporters. "Technically, it is nearly impossible to finish before the end of the year."
Experts said removing irradiated fuel rods from the plutonium-producing reactor would halt its operations and could pave the way for further decommissioning steps.
U.S. and South Korean officials said other disablement steps have been going smoothly and the North has been cooperating.
Regional powers want next to take apart the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex but say the disablement steps will put it out of the plutonium-producing business for at least one year.
The North said in a report on its official KCNA news agency that it is adhering to the disarmament-for-aid deal it reached with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
"The DPRK (North Korea) is honestly fulfilling its commitment to disable those facilities within the year according to the agreement reached at the six-party talks," KCNA said.
U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill is scheduled to make his first visit Yongbyon next week. He will also press the North to meet another part of the deal, which is to give by the end of the year a full account of its nuclear arms activity.
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Jon Herskovitz, editing by David Fogarty)
Anyway, they are angling for more goodies, or stalling for another year, hoping that they will deal with Dems by then.
Ping!
If they have “scrammed” the plant, it is not operating so it is doing nothing and the rods can be removed. You cannot remove rods from a plant that is running so, one wonders exactly what is going on.
Soviet Era, damaged reactor core, compute the megatonnage for this sucker!
I was thinking the same thing. Kim Jong probably changed his mind about the rods themselves and now it is being spun as technical challenges. So fine, they can’t remove them before the end of the year. How about a statement saying they will all be removed and shipped to the US in three months exactly? Something is not right.
If they scram the plant, who cares if we get them or not, we then have to pay for the storage of them. Scram the plant and lock them in place nothing happens.
I wonder if these rods come from old Soviet Union back in da day
Indeed. If there have been ruptured fuel casings over the years and the pile is grossly contaminated borated water and ion exchange will wash it out. A month, maybe.
Interesting how the Yen has traded in a much lower and more narrow range since the “subprime” business hit? Looks to me that Toyota is running about “break even” in North America when repatriating profits.
Couldn’t possibly be the Chinese (and their OPEC “running dogs”) balking at buying Wall Street CDO’s? Utterly masterful that European investment vehicles were the scherepunkt, as Clausewitz may well have put it. Trading in German style asset backed securities, Pfandbriefe amongst others, has been suspended “temporarily” I read.
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