North Korea launches Jongbyeon reactor again – SME.sk

SOUL. North Korea appears to have reopened a five-megawatt plutonium reactor at the Jongbjona nuclear facility.

Since the beginning of July 2021, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, that the reactor is back in operation, according to Reuters and AFP, according to an annual report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“The latest evidence is deeply worrying,” the UN agency said in a report. As early as June, the IAEA announced that there were indications of a restart of the Jongbyeon reactor, where plutonium was being recovered from spent fuel rods that could be used in nuclear weapons.

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The IAEA has not had a direct opportunity to monitor North Korea’s nuclear program since 2009, when the Pyongyang government expelled its inspectors from the country.

Since then, the IAEA has been monitoring developments in North Korea at a distance, mainly through satellite imagery.

The area in Jongbyeon is located about one hundred kilometers north of the capital Pyongyang. In addition to the experimental reactor, it includes equipment for the recovery of plutonium from spent fuel rods.

The North Korean government launched the reactor in December 2002, but the complex was closed again a few years later. However, satellite photos taken in the summer of 2013 showed that the complex is back in operation.

According to experts, at full capacity, it can produce six kilograms of plutonium per year, which would be enough to produce an atomic bomb.

International sanctions have been imposed on North Korea for its nuclear program, which has been hampering the economic development of this isolated country for many years. Consequences of natural disasters and pandemics coronavirus they made the situation worse there.