Word: plutonium
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...Agreeing on the final 10%, though, is proving difficult. That's because India insists on its right to reprocess spent fuel and demands access to reprocessing technology. Reprocessing, however, yields plutonium, which can be used both to fuel reactors and for making bombs. Under its "Separation Plan," India says fuel purchased abroad for civilian purposes will not be diverted for military uses, but some in the U.S. fear that accepting India's demand for reprocessing rights and technology will increase its strategic nuclear capabilities...
...Bush Administration is struggling to downplay North Korea's refusal to honor its agreement to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is producing plutonium that the regime has used to make nuclear weapons. "You know, we have a plan," a senior State Department official told reporters almost plaintively, after Pyongyang missed the 60-day deadline that ran out Saturday. "We're just a little delayed in the timing here and we're going to try to work with the partners in the next few days to get it back on track...
...motion by the recent breakthrough in the six-party talks aimed at getting the North to end its nuclear-weapons program. Last month, North Korea struck a deal with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, which produces the plutonium material necessary to make nukes, in return for a variety of economic and diplomatic benefits, including an emergency delivery of 50,000 tons of fuel oil. The Bush Administration's goal is not only a North Korea without nuclear weapons, but also a wholesale thaw in the Northeast Asian security environment. As Hill...
...even if all goes well, those steps will lead to the vexing question of whether the North is engaged in another nuclear-weapons program-one not addressed by the agreement-that involves processing highly enriched uranium, not plutonium, to make bombs. The U.S. confronted Pyongyang in 2002 with intelligence it claimed to have about the program, and according to U.S. diplomats at the time, Pyongyang confirmed it did indeed exist. Since then, the North has denied it has such a program-and now even Washington appears less certain. Last week, Joseph DeTrani, a key intelligence official, stunned a Senate panel...
...some point, presumably, those steps will raise the increasingly puzzling question of the North's other nuclear program, the one that allegedly makes bombs out of highly enriched uranium rather than plutonium. When the U.S. confronted Pyongyang in late 2002 with intelligence about this program, U.S. diplomats say Pyongyang confirmed its existence and then stormed out of the talks. Since then, the North has denied the existence of a uranium bomb program. And last week, a key intelligence official in Washington stunned a Senate panel by testifying that analysts now only had a "mid-confidence level" about the program...