Word: plutonium
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...game of nuclear now-you-see-it, now-you-don't for the past two years, both leaders raised the anxiety level a few notches last week. After North Korea's nuclear technicians blocked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from verifying whether Pyongyang has already secretly diverted enough plutonium for a bomb or two, Clinton for the first time asked the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue of economic sanctions. In the past, North Korea has vowed to consider sanctions an act of war, a pledge that will surely be on the minds of council members...
August 9, 1945 Plutonium bomb "Fat Man"dropped on Nagasaki...
After a week of feints, fizzles and frustration, the U.S. seems to have averted a diplomatic meltdown -- at least temporarily -- in its escalating nuclear standoff with North Korea. First, Pyongyang exacerbated the 15-month dispute by beginning to remove plutonium-rich fuel rods from a nuclear reactor without monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency -- which could enable the North to acquire more plutonium for its suspected nuclear arms program. The move prompted the IAEA to issue an unusually blunt statement accusing Pyongyang of a "serious violation" of its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. And that effectively catapulted...
Since late April, North Korea has been telling the IAEA that it intended to unload fuel rods from its main nuclear reactor near the city of Yongbyon. According to Defense Secretary William Perry, Yongbyon's estimated 8,000 rods contain enough plutonium to build four or five bombs, and inspectors need to see if all the fuel is still there. The issue is of critical importance because the CIA estimates that fuel rods removed from Yongbyon in 1989 provided the plutonium to build one or two nuclear weapons. Whether Pyongyang actually has them is impossible to know for sure...
...that it was going ahead with removing the fuel rods, the IAEA sent in a three-man inspection team. Last Thursday the observers concluded that if the process continued without inspection of the samples, it would result in "irreparable loss of the agency's ability to verify" that the plutonium-laden fuel was not being ! diverted for weapons use. But by Friday IAEA officials informed Washington that none of the disputed fuel has so far been diverted -- and on Saturday, Pyongyang invited nuclear inspectors to discuss plans for additional monitoring...