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North Korea has resumed the construction of two nuclear reactors suspended under a 1994 agreement with the United States, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday. North Korea restarted building a 50,000-kilowatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200,000-kilowatt reactor in Thaechon _ both are plutonium-producing graphite-based _ Japanese economic daily Nihon Keizai said, quoting unidentified U.S. government and other sources. Japan's Foreign Ministry said it couldn't confirm the report. North Korea had suspended the construction of the two reactors under the 1994 deal in exchange for energy aid and two light-water reactors that are less likely to be used in nuclear...

The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 - a highly radioactive substance valued as a power source - since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. It is hot enough to melt plastic and so dangerous that a speck can cause cancer. Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds, or 150 kilograms, over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in...

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NATIONAL SECURITY: U.S. MAY RESUME PRODUCTION OF PLUTONIUM; FIRST TIME SINCE END OF COLD WAR... DEVELOPING...

Teheran 'lied' over plutonium production By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 17/06/2005) Iran falsely reported the timing of experiments to produce plutonium, a fissile material used in nuclear weapons, a report by the United Nations watchdog said yesterday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Teheran had earlier admitted that it had produced plutonium in breach of the international rules, but claimed that the work had ended in 1993. But IAEA inspectors have now forced Teheran to admit that the work continued until 1998. The quantities involved are small, but in a statement, the American representative to the IAEA,...

Iran admits having treated plutonium in 1998 VIENNA - Iran admitted having treated plutonium, a material which can be used for the nuclear bomb, in 1998, that is to say earlier than it had up to now admitted it, according to a report/ratio having to be communicated Thursday in the States of the IAEA and whose AFP obtained a copy. When International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requested from Iran the dates its experiments on the separation of plutonium, Teheran admitted to have purified plutonium in 1998. That represents a change compared to the Iranian preceding declarations, according to which...

US might find Pyongyang strike 'tempting' By Hamish McDonaldBeijingMay 21, 2005   South Korean electronics giant Samsung has launched a unilateral initiative to improve relations with the North. It has signed North Korean dancer Cho Myong-ae to promote its mobile phones. Cho will be the first North Korean to appear in an advertisement in the South.Photo: Reuters A nuclear arms control expert has warned that the United States might be tempted to carry out a strike on the reactor that is North Korea's source of bomb-making plutonium.The warning comes as North Korean moves suggest it may soon carry out a nuclear...

/begin my translation N. Korean Think Tank, "Nuclear Test Coming Soon" Told a Visiting Japanese Delegation, "No Uranium Enrichment Plan" 05/09/2005 Amid a flurry of reports that N. Korean nuclear test is imminent, a report has belatedly surfaced, which says that N. Korea had told Japanese experts on Korea and figures from Japanese nongovernmental organizations(NGO) that it will have nuclear test soon.   An official at a N. Korean think tank, "Nuclear test coming soon"  According to May 9 issue of Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese daily, Park Hyun-jae, Vice Director of 'Arms Reduction and Peace Institute', a think tank under N. Korean Foreign Ministry, told Japanese specialists on Korea,...

N.Korea May Carry Out Nuclear Test by June - Kyodo Fri Apr 29,10:13 PM ET TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency that North Korea has been preparing to carry out an underground nuclear test since March and could go ahead as early as June, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday. The report, which quoted diplomatic sources in Vienna, came a day after the chief U.S. negotiator to stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions said Washington believed North Korea might be trying to harvest material for a nuclear bomb from a shut-down reactor. According...

U.S. policy on North seen in flux April 20, 2005 - WASHINGTON - Speaking to an American newspaper, North Korea's top diplomat in New York said the country has shut down its nuclear reactor and plans to increase its nuclear deterrent. At the same time, the United States warned that it may soon change its policy and clamp down on the North economically and militarily. According to a report in USA Today, Han Song-ryol, North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday that his government has shut down its reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and plans to...

North Korea ready to reprocess spent nuclear fuel into plutonium Sun Apr 17, 3:06 AM ET  Asia - AFP TOKYO (AFP) - North Korea has halted operations at a nuclear power reactor at the center of an international row, a move that could let Pyongyang reprocess spent fuel to retract plutonium and boost its nuclear arsenal, a press report said. North Korean workers re-paint a propaganda tower near the truce village of Panmunjom. (AFP/File/Jung Yeon-Je) The United States will shortly send Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to South Korea, Japan and China...

TEHRAN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Iran and Russia signed a nuclear fuel supply deal on Sunday which will allow Tehran to start up its first nuclear power plant in 2006. Here are some facts about the deal.Under the deal, Russia will supply Iran with enriched uranium for Iran's first nuclear reactor in Bushehr on Iran's southern Gulf coastThe first fuel is expected to be delivered to Iran from Siberia in mid-2006. Bushehr will be commissioned in late-2006.. . . Iran will return spent fuel from the reactor to Russia. Spent nuclear reactor fuel can be reprocessed to make bomb-grade plutonium....

Debating N. Korea nukes Intelligence officials can't agree on total bombs nation has in its arsenal, but highest tally is as many as 15 BY KNUT ROYCE WASHINGTON BUREAU February 16, 2005 WASHINGTON - Defense Intelligence Agency analysts believe North Korea may already have produced as many as 15 nuclear weapons, according to a DIA official. "A dozen to 15, tops," said the official, who asked to not be further identified. Another intelligence official who works for a separate agency said the DIA's estimate is at the high end of a recent intelligence community-wide assessment of North Korea's nuclear arsenal....

SELLAFIELD, ENGLAND - Britain's biggest nuclear site can't account for 30 kilograms of plutonium – enough to make seven or eight nuclear bombs.

February 9, 2005 U.S. Asking China to Press North Korea to End Its Nuclear Program By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - Driven by new evidence that North Korea may have begun selling nuclear materials around the world, President Bush sent an emissary last week to see President Hu Jintao of China and urge him to intensify diplomatic pressure on the North to give up its weapons program, according to senior American and Asian officials. The emissary, Michael Green, delivered a letter from Mr. Bush to Mr. Hu that, in the words of one American...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence. The determination, which has circulated among senior government officials in recent weeks, has touched off a hunt to determine if North Korea has also sold uranium to other countries, including Iran and Syria. So far, there is no evidence that such additional transactions took place. Nonetheless, the conclusion about the uranium transfer...

German police have arrested two suspected al-Qaida terrorists – one who was allegedly trying to buy enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb and other planning a suicide attack in Iraq. According to a German prosecutor, the arrests, which occurred early Sunday, came after months of investigation, Knight-Ridder reported. The suspects were nabbed after early morning police raids in Mainz and Bonn. President Bush is scheduled to visit Mainz next month, which heightens the security concerns in the city. It was determined today there was enough evidence to keep the pair in custody pending possible charges. Authorities described one suspect, Ibrahim...

VIENNA (AFX) - UN inspectors are investigating undeclared nuclear activity in Egypt which could be related to atomic weapons development, diplomats said. The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) are checking a reprocessing lab which makes plutonium, the diplomats said.

When experts from the US and the IAEA came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness. The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans...

DENVER (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday endorsed hiking, hunting and other public use of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant after it is cleaned up and converted to a wildlife refuge. The agency released its draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the 6,240-acre site outside Denver where the government once made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads. The plan outlines uses for the site after the $7 billion cleanup, scheduled to be complete in 2006. The agency's preferred option includes hiking, cycling, horseback riding and some hunting. It includes about 16 miles of...