Today I am going to continue blogging about North Korea’s nuclear program. Yesterday, I covered their history from the beginning in 1956 with help from the Soviet Union up to the end of the Cold War in 1991. Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center is the main location for nuclear research in N.K. It contains facilities  for fabricating nuclear fuel, a small research reactor, a facility for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel and a reprocessing facility to recover uranium and plutonium from spent fuel. These are the requirements for what is called the Magnox nuclear reactor fuel cycle. Magnox is a name for a particular type of magnesium alloy that is used as the cladding material for fuel rods of unenriched uranium fuel. It is a old design that is inefficient and requires fuel rods that are expensive to manufacture. The spent fuel cannot be stored for long but it is easier to reprocess. The construction of a fifty megawatt Magnox reactor began in 1985 and the construction of a two hundred megawatt reactor at Taechon also began in the late 1980s.

             N.K. had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1985 which included granting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) permission to inspect its nuclear facilities. N.K.’s first report on nuclear activities was submitted to the IAEA in 1992. The IAEA began inspections of nuclear facilities in N.K. It was determined that the North Korean report did not match the findings of the IAEA with respect to plutonium stockpiles. The IAEA requested permission to visit two additional sites which N.K. denied. The IAEA reported the violation of the NPT to the U.N. Security Council. In March of 1993, N.K. declared its intention to withdraw from the NPT. The U.N. countered with Resolution 285 calling for N.K. to reconsider withdrawing from the NPT and to allow the two contested sites to be inspected. In June of 1993, N.K. announced that it was “suspending effectuation” of its withdrawal from the NPT.

          The United States and N.K. signed the “Agreed Framework” in 1994 after N.K. requested bilateral negotiations with the United States. The Framework was intended to put a stop to the indigenous nuclear power program in N.K. and to make nuclear proliferation more difficult. N.K. would allow IAEA inspectors back. Spent nuclear fuel stockpiles in N.K. would be disposed of instead of being reprocessed. The original five megawatt research reactor and both Magnox reactors under construction would be replaced by light water reactors financed by South Korea by 2003. In the meantime, the U.S. would supply oil for heating and electricity production. The U.S. and N.K. would work towards resolution of all political and economic dispute. The U.S. stated that it would not use nuclear weapons on N.K. N.K. suspended work on the two new reactors under construction.

             Congress refused to reverse economic sanctions and restore diplomatic relations as promised by the White House. Bids were not tendered for construction of the light water reactors until 1998 which frustrated N.K. Construction of the light water reactors started in 2000 but fell behind schedule and work was halted in 2002. The U.S. was concerned that N.K. was continuing its nuclear weapons program covertly. Following a report by the CIA that N.K. was installing centrifuges to enrich uranium in violation of the Framework, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State confronted N.K. The North Koreans claimed that no evidence had been presented and denied the claims of the U.S. With both sides hurtling charges at each other, the Framework fell apart in 2002.

 Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center:

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A US grassroots group is urging the public to support a set of efforts to improve food monitoring in the US against radioactive contamination. fukuleaks.org

Chernobyl reactor is being covered by a giant steel dome. bbc.co.uk

Implementation of Geneva nuclear deal to start by early January, Iranian envoy says. haaretz.com

China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has become the latest in a list of overseas companies turning their attention towards Saudi Arabia’s nuclear power program. world-nuclear-news.org

              Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of the war. American authorities divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th Parallel with the U.S. military occupying the southern half and the Soviet forces in the northern half. After the failure to hold elections in 1948 on the Korean Peninsula, the growing hostility between the Soviets and the Americans was reflected in the growing hostility between North Korea with its communist government and South Korea with a right-wing government. In 1950, the North invaded the South and started the Korean War. The United Nations sent a multination force to support the South and the Peoples Republic of China came in to support the North. The war was hard fought with many casualties on both sides. It ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement that restored the 38th Parallel as the border between the North and the South and created the two and one half miles Korean Demilitarized Zone between the two states.

             While South Korea became an economic engine that raised the standard of living of its citizens, North Korea descended into a poverty-stricken belligerent dynastic totalitarian state. There have been repeated violations of the DMZ by the North over the years. The North Koreans maintain one of the largest armies on earth at the expense of their civilian population and repeatedly threaten to invade the South. The U.S. maintains troops in South Korea near the DMZ to counter the North Korean treat. This confused and dangerous situation has continued for sixty years.

             The North Koreans began serious research in nuclear physics and technology with the help of the Soviet Union a few years after the end of the Korean War. The United States deployed nuclear warheads in South Korea in 1958 which increased North Korean paranoia. The North Korean Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center (YNSRC) was opened in 1963. In 1965, the Soviets supplied the North Koreans with a IRT-2000 pool research reactor for the YNSRC. In the late 1970s, North Korea began mining uranium. In the Early 1980s, the North Koreans built a factory at the YNSRC  to create nuclear fuel from the yellowcake produced by their mines. A reprocessing plant was completed at the YNSRC  in 1984 for the purpose of recovering plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. Also completed around 1985 was a gas-cooled graphite reactor that the U.S. decided was intended for plutonium production.

            With the fall of the Soviet Union around 1990, the North Koreans lost their main benefactor and protector. Satellite photos convinced the U.S. that North Korea had embarked on construction of new nuclear facilities at the YNSRC. Although North Korea had signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, they did not permit inspection of their nuclear facilities. The U.S. and other nations were concerned that North Korea was actively pursuing the construction of nuclear weapons. In spite of this, the U.S. withdrew its last nuclear warhead from South Korea in 1991.

Experimental IRT-2000 reactor at Yongbyon:

Yongbyon Research Reactor.png

Professor Robert Jacobs, Hiroshima City University, says he sees the Fukushima catastrophe as absolutely horrifying and ongoing. beforeitsnews.com

A NKK news report on fishing in the Fukushima area of Japan was aired on PB. rense.com

There was a public meeting on November 21st in St. Louis to discuss radioactive waste at a public landfill. enformable.com

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station had three violations during a routine check by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  plymouth.patch.com

        I have blogged before about NASA and concerns about their supply of radioisotopes used to power spacecraft. NASA has just announced that it will halt work on the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), a new nuclear generator intended for the next generation of space probes. It was intended to replace the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Generator (MMRTG) that has been the power source of the U.S. space exploration program for decades. Basic research and development on the ASRG will be transferred from the U.S. Department of Energy to the Glenn Research Center. Budget constraints were cited by NASA as the reason for the change. NASA will continue to utilize the MMRTG for future probes.

         The MMRTGs contains about ten and a half pounds of PU-238 and generates around one hundred and twenty five watts of electricity at the start of its life. The more efficient ASRG uses about two and a half pounds of PU-238 to generate one hundred and forty watts of electricity when first put into service. PU-238 has a half life of eighty seven years. With a projected mission time of about fourteen years, both generators are able to provide needed power for the whole mission. The ASRGs are about four times as efficient as the MMRTGs which means that four times as many probes could be launched for the same amount of PU-238 if the probes were powered by ASRGs.

         NASA says they have sufficient plutonium-238 for the near future but it is estimated that NASA only has enough PU-238 for one more big mission which may be the Mars mission planned for 2020. The U.S. is going to restart production of PU -238 which was halted in 1989. However, only two to three pounds of PU -238 will be produced each year. The New Horizon mission to Pluto required about twenty four pounds of PU-238. It would take about ten years to produce that much PU-238 with the current projected production levels. This would mean that big space probes could only be launched about once a decade. NASA had to purchase PU-238  from the Russians for the recent Curiosity Mars mission.

         On the other hand, a Jupiter mission slated for 2016 will not have a nuclear power generator on board. Due to the great distance from the sun to Jupiter, three huge solar panels will be used to power the probe. Without nuclear power generators, U.S. exploration of the outer solar system will be impossible. This may prevent the Europa mission or the Titan lander mission from being carried out.

         Only the U.S. space program has launched missions to the outer solar system. Unless something changes, it is likely that missions to the outer solar system will be few and far between. This would be a serious blow to the exploration of the solar system. If you care about the U.S. space program, write to your Congressmen and the President urging the production of more PU-238 and the resurrection of ASRG manufacture. The Planetary Society is also a good place to register support for the future of the U.S. space program.

 Diagram of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator:

Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator.png

China-Korea Cooperation on the Development of Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System of Radionuclides model shows West Coast of N. America to get highest level of Fukushima contamination until 2030s. enenews.com

Secrecy law that may mean prison for ‘inappropriate reporting’ has been approved in Japan. enenews.com

Tehran has strongly rejected Washington’s interpretation of the long-awaited interim nuclear agreement reached by the P5+1 nations in Geneva, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry labeled the factsheet released by the US a “one-sided interpretation.”  rt.com

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister officially broke ground on a new nuclear plant near the country’s commercial capital of Karachi. nuclearstreet.com

           Today I am going to discuss the promotion of nuclear power by the United States Department of Energy (USDOE). The U.S. Secretary of Energy Moniz is currently advocating for the use of nuclear power as a clean CO₂ free energy source for industrial operations. This suggestion for expansion of nuclear power beyond commerical urban power generation is a welcome boost for the U.S. nuclear industry.

           Monitz spoke at the Future of Advanced Nuclear Technologies conference about what are referred to as “fouth generation” nuclear reactors, especially the small modular reactors (SMR), that are currently under development. They are supposed to be simpler, easier to build, safer and even portable alternatives to today’s giant power reactors. They are being designed to operate at higher temperature than standard power reactors. Some of the uses being proposed are “process heat, water desalinization, hydrogen production, petroleum production and refining.”

          The US DOE is in the process of doling out the next portion of its four hundred and fifty two million dollar grant program for the development of SMRs. It is hoped that these SMRs can be built on an assembly line and moved to the location where they will be used. There are several companies competing for the grant money including General Atomics, X-Energy, NuScale and Westinghouse. Many of the proposed designs are supposed to be able to operate between six hundred degrees and nine hundred degrees Celsius, which is much higher than the operating temperature of the current nuclear power reactors. Such high temperature reactors could also generate electricity at a lower cost than conventional reactors.

           The Chinese are leading the way in the development of next generation nuclear reactors such as molten salt and pebble bed reactors. They have stated their intention to use such reactors for “hydrogen production, gasifying coal, methanol production and other industrial uses.” China hopes to have a two megawatt pilot pebble bed reactor by 2015 and a one hundred megawatt pebble bed reactor by 2024. Considering the agressive Chinese reactor construction program currently underway, it appears that they are not devoting major resources to the new type of reactors or they have not finished research and development of the new designs.

            The Obama Administration states that nuclear energy must be part of the mix of new energy sources that are intended to mitigate the climate change being caused by the CO₂  being produced by the burning of fossil fuels. The new generation of reactors are also seen as a way to utilize nuclear power while not adding to the risk of the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

          While I applaud the desire to find CO₂ free sources of energy and to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation, I am skeptical that the SMRs will be the cheap troublefree energy source that they are claimed to be. It has taken us decades to understand what happens in conventional nuclear reactors. There will be a similar learning curve for the new SMRs. If they are widely deployed before we understand exactly what effect the higher temperatures have on construction materials over a period of decades, it is almost guaranteed that there will be accidents and shutdowns that will make the SMRs much less attractive as a new power source. 

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