Photo : KBS News
North Korea monitoring websites Beyond Parallel and 38 North speculate that the regime’s five megawatt Yongbyon nuclear reactor continues to operate based on recent satellite imagery taken late last month and early this month.
Beyond Parallel said imagery shows that water around the reactor’s cooling discharge pipe is ice-free, creating a semi-circle of thawed water in an otherwise frozen river.
38 North also argued that snow melt helps indicate the plutonium production reactor and the uranium enrichment plant continue to operate, as reported in recent months, and there is ongoing activity throughout the Yongbyon complex.
Citing a former nuclear inspector, Voice of America earlier reported the North appears to have resumed uranium enrichment plant(UEP) operations at its Yongbyon facility.
Ollie Heinonen, a former deputy chief at the International Atomic Energy Agency and current fellow at the Stimson Center, gave the assessment citing satellite images. He said snow melts on the roofs of several buildings making up the UEP indicate heat is being generated because the plant is in operation.
Beyond Parallel, 38 North: Yongbyon Reactor in Operation
Source: Matira Matibay
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