Images show North Korea building new nuke reactor

New satellite images show construction under way at North Koreas main atomic complex.

New satellite images show construction under way at North Koreas main atomic complex,apparent proof that Pyongyang is making good on its pledge to build a nuclear power reactor,according to a private US security institute.

North Korea vowed in March to build a light-water reactor using its own nuclear fuel,and two US experts who recently visited the North have reportedly said that construction has begun. Light-water reactors are ostensibly for civilian energy purposes,but the power plant would give the North a reason to enrich uranium. At low levels,uranium can be used in power reactors,but at higher levels it can be used in nuclear bombs. While light-water reactors are considered less prone to misuse than heavy-water reactors,once the process of uranium enrichment is mastered,it is relatively easy to enrich further to weapons-grade levels.

North Korea is pursuing an arsenal of atomic weapons,so all its nuclear projects are of intense interest to its neighbours and to the US. It carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Story continues below this ad

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released commercial satellite images from November 4 that show a rectangular structure being built,with at least two cranes visible at the complex. It estimated North Korea was constructing a 25 to 30 megawatt light-water reactor.

The institute based its estimate on information from the recent trip to Yongbyon by Siegfried Hecker,former director of US Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory,and Jack Pritchard,former US envoy for negotiations with the North.

It said Hecker told the institute that the new construction seen in the satellite imagery is indeed the construction of the experimental light-water reactor. The institute said the amount of low-enriched uranium needed for a 25 to 30 megawatt reactor could vary depending on the design of the reactor and what it will be optimised for.

‘Grave insult to wounded people’: Cong lashes out at PM Modi amid his first Manipur visit

India3 hr ago

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Manipur for the first time since ethnic violence hit the state in May 2023, the Congress on Saturday called it a “farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a wounded people”.

View all shorts

Live Blog