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| The 5 MWe experimental reactor (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Ankit Panda
New analysis of satellite imagery suggests North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor is back up and running.
North Korea’s 5 megawatt (MW) reactor at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center may be back up and operational according to a new expert assessment.
David Albright and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) note that satellite imagery suggests that the reactor “may be operating at low power or intermittently.”
Albright and Kelleher-Vergantini present their findings in a new report titled “Yongbyon: A Better Insight into the Status of the 5MWe Reactor.” The report, along with the satellite images used to support the analysis, is available here (PDF).
The Yongbyon facility has been operated and shutdown intermittently over the years. Construction on the facility began in the 1980s, and the reactor went critical in 1986.
The authors note that assessments in fall 2014 showed that activity around the Yongbyon facility had fully or partially ceased. As of this spring, that is no longer true.
Read the full story at The Diplomat