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Seoul offers to use North Korean nuclear fuel rods: report
Seoul (AFP) Dec 2, 2007 South Korea is proposing to use North Korean nuclear fuel rods, to be removed from a reactor under a six-nation disarmament deal, for South Korean power plants, a news report said Sunday. Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed government source as saying negotiators should decide how to dispose of the nuclear fuel that will be removed as part of the full dismantling of the North's nuclear facilities under the deal. "Bringing the North Korean fuel rods into the South is one of the options now under consideration," the source said, adding Seoul first needs to check if the North's fuel can be used by the South's nuclear power plants. Twenty nuclear power plants are operating in the South, meeting about 40 percent of the country's need for electricity, according to government data. But the source did not clarify Seoul's position on what to do with weapons-grade plutonium -- a key source for making atomic bombs -- that the North has supposedly extracted from the spent fuel rods. Seoul's top nuclear envoy Chun Yung-Woo said Friday that the US-led disabling of North Korea's nuclear site was proceeding smoothly, with thousands of spent fuel rods expected to be relocated from a five-megawatt reactor to a cooling pond starting next year. "Most of the disabling work, except for the removal of the nuclear fuel rods from the reactor, is expected to be completed this year," Chun said. "A lot of preparation is needed to take the fuel rods out." The North staged a nuclear test in October 2006 despite international warnings, but agreed in February to an aid-for-disarmament deal under the landmark six-nation nuclear talks. Under the accord endorsed by the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, the North began disabling three of its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon under US supervision in November. As part of the deal, the North should disable the Yongbyon plants and declare a full list of its nuclear programmes by year-end in return for receiving one-million-tonnes of oil or equivalent energy aid. If the North keeps up its end of the deal, the United States has agreed to move towards removing the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and to normalise diplomatic ties. The North on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to disabling the plants by year-end as long as its partners kept their promises. Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said Friday in Seoul he hoped North Korea would be nuclear-free by next year but added that the isolated and impoverished country must give up all its atomic material. Hill plans to fly Monday to North Korea to inspect work under way at its Yongbyon complex to disable three plutonium-producing nuclear plants. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
IAEA inspects Russian fuel for Iran: factory
Moscow (AFP) Nov 30, 2007UN nuclear officials on Friday completed five days of inspections of the first consignment of Russian fuel for Iran's nuclear power plant at Bushehr, a statement from the fuel factory said. |
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