Sidebar: A Plutonium Debacle
Under the “fuel canning” agreement, American nuclear experts assisted North Korea in canning spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor and transferring them from cooling ponds to “dry storage.” The rods were placed in steel containers suitable for shipment out of the country. The U.S. taxpayer-financed process began April 27, 1996 and was finished in April 2000, almost three years after the projected finish date. Under a subsidiary 1995 agreement, the containers were supposed to be taken out of the country to prevent the fuel from being reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium suitable for creating nuclear bombs. ( Supply Agreement KEDO-DRPK 1995, Annex 3, Point 9 ). So why, after billions were spent on diplomatic “rewards,” were the canisters left behind?
Dec 1, 2006
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