As the UN nuclear agency was confirming that North Korea has agreed to let UN experts monitor the dismantling of its nuclear program, the reclusive communist nation released photos of leader Kim Jong II that only raised questions about his health.
The photos, the first of Kim seen in two months, show him in a setting very similar to photographs from August. And the verdant background looks more like summer than autumn, adding to uncertainty about Kim's condition after reports he underwent brain surgery.
In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed North Korea's vow that it will allow the UN monitors to be assured the plant that produced plutonium for its test bomb remains disabled.
The moves were a strong indication that Pyongyang was making good on its pledge to return to a deal with the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan meant to strip it of its weapons-enabling nuclear program.
Pyongyang announced Sunday it would resume dismantlement in line with the deal offering political and energy rewards in exchange, after the United States removed North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.
"The agency inspectors were ... informed today that as of 14 October 2008, core discharge activities at the [nuclear] reactor would be resumed," said a restricted IAEA document to the agency's 35 board members obtained by The Associated Press. It said "monitoring and verification arrangements" of the UN nuclear agency would be restarted.
Separately, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said its inspectors "will also now be permitted to reapply the containment and surveillance measures at the reprocessing facility."
Up to late last week, the North had threatened to reactivate the plutonium reprocessing plant. It told IAEA inspectors to remove IAEA seals and banned them from monitoring first the plant and then all the facilities at the complex. It also stopped deactivating the Yongbyon reactor.
The North rescinded inspection rights Thursday, but the three-member IAEA team had been allowed to stay.
The still photos and video frame grabs were released Saturday, accompanying a report by North Korean television that Kim visited a military unit. They were the first photos of Kim published since Aug. 14; and in both sets of pictures he wears his trademark dark sunglasses and a khaki jumpsuit. "They didn't appear to have been taken recently," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.
(Source: Newsday)
Showing posts with label inspection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspection. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Bulgaria Kozloduy asks IAEA to check nuclear fuel
Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant, Kozloduy, will invite the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA to check the quality of its fuel in a bid to disprove accusations it uses dangerous recycled material, officials said on Thursday.
Kozloduy's executive director Ivan Genov said the plant was the target of a campaign aiming at damaging the future of nuclear energy in Bulgaria.
"For weeks, Kozloduy has been discredited by a campaign, which started with rumours about a radiation cloud," Genov told a news conference.
Last month, a persistent rumour in Internet chat rooms and blogs about an alleged major radiation incident at Kozloduy scared Bulgarians. The government has denied the rumour and launched a criminal investigation to find those who spread it.
Earlier this week, Georgi Kotev, a nuclear scientist and long-term Kozloduy employee, accused the plant in his web blog and several media interviews of using second-hand fuel.
"These claims are absurd," Genov said.
Bulgaria imports all of its uranium fuel for Kozloduy from Russia, the plant says.
The 2,000 megawatt Kozloduy, which accounts for over 35 percent of Bulgaria's power production, will ask the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to check the fuel it uses to prove its image is clean.
Bulgaria is among the European Union member countries that believe atomic energy is part of the solution to climate change, as proponents say it emits almost no greenhouse gases.
The country permanently shut four older Soviet reactors at Kozloduy in the past several years as a condition for joining the EU. As a result, it lost its position of a major power exporter in the Balkans.
Kozloduy, on the Danube, now has two remaining reactors.
Sofia plans a second 2,000 MW nuclear power plant on the Danube in Belene to restore its electricity exporting position and meet growing domestic demand.
Opinion polls show most Bulgarians support nuclear energy. Several green groups and parties oppose the Belene plan.
(Source: Reuters)
Kozloduy's executive director Ivan Genov said the plant was the target of a campaign aiming at damaging the future of nuclear energy in Bulgaria.
"For weeks, Kozloduy has been discredited by a campaign, which started with rumours about a radiation cloud," Genov told a news conference.
Last month, a persistent rumour in Internet chat rooms and blogs about an alleged major radiation incident at Kozloduy scared Bulgarians. The government has denied the rumour and launched a criminal investigation to find those who spread it.
Earlier this week, Georgi Kotev, a nuclear scientist and long-term Kozloduy employee, accused the plant in his web blog and several media interviews of using second-hand fuel.
"These claims are absurd," Genov said.
Bulgaria imports all of its uranium fuel for Kozloduy from Russia, the plant says.
The 2,000 megawatt Kozloduy, which accounts for over 35 percent of Bulgaria's power production, will ask the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to check the fuel it uses to prove its image is clean.
Bulgaria is among the European Union member countries that believe atomic energy is part of the solution to climate change, as proponents say it emits almost no greenhouse gases.
The country permanently shut four older Soviet reactors at Kozloduy in the past several years as a condition for joining the EU. As a result, it lost its position of a major power exporter in the Balkans.
Kozloduy, on the Danube, now has two remaining reactors.
Sofia plans a second 2,000 MW nuclear power plant on the Danube in Belene to restore its electricity exporting position and meet growing domestic demand.
Opinion polls show most Bulgarians support nuclear energy. Several green groups and parties oppose the Belene plan.
(Source: Reuters)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Iran dismisses Bush and Brown nuclear charges
Iran said on Sunday U.S. and British accusations that Tehran wanted a nuclear weapon were baseless and the Islamic state would not stop its peaceful atomic work.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was in Washington last week, pledged a united effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, possibly by expanding sanctions against Tehran.
"The stance voiced by the American president and British prime minister about Iran's nuclear activities is not compatible with the reality of any of (its) activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue with its peaceful activities," he told a news conference, adding that "no law prevents our country from continuing these peaceful activities".
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says it is seeking to master nuclear technology to generate electricity not bombs. But its failure to convince world powers about its intention has prompted three rounds of U.N. sanctions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this month Iran would soon unveil proposals aimed to help defuse the row but gave no details. Hosseini did not elaborate on those plans.
"Regarding the package, we will provide you with the comments and explanations at the appropriate time," he told reporters when asked about Mottaki's nuclear proposal package.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) top investigator, Olli Heinonen, arrives in Iran on Monday to press for answers to Western intelligence alleging Iran covertly studied how to design atomic bombs. Iran denies this.
Hosseini described Heinonen's trip as a "normal" visit.
(Source: Reuters)
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Nuclear news 27/11/2007
Lithuania still sees new nuclear plant in 2015 -PM
Reuters
Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas believes Lithuania can still build a new nuclear power plant by 2015 but uncertainties over the timetable and capacity remain, he said on Monday.
The project, led by Lithuania and involving Latvia, Estonia and Poland, has already become bogged down by Warsaw's demand for one third of the new plant's output.
"We are keeping to the timetable of 2015 but it is difficult to answer very exactly," Kirkilas said in an interview to Reuters.
British Energy names likely nuclear plant sites
The Financial Times
Plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations will take a significant step forward today when British Energy names four sites in the south of England as the first it wants to link to the national grid.
Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent, Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex have been identified as the most likely sites for new nuclear construction.
UN Checks Russian Nuclear Fuel for Iran
AP
Inspectors from the U.N. atomic watchdog agency on Monday began checking uranium fuel that was produced at a Russian facility for Iran's first nuclear power plant, officials said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's experts will certify and seal fuel intended for the power station Russia is building in the Iranian port of Bushehr, said Sergei Guryanov, a spokesman for the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant in Siberia. The plant is Russia's main manufacturer of fuel for nuclear power plants.
Five-nation nuclear inspection team in NKorea: officials
AFP
Officials from the five nations trying to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to observe the disablement of the isolated state's main atomic facility, officials said.
The delegation, including senior US diplomat Sung Kim, will visit the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is slowly being disabled in accordance with an agreement struck in February, they said.
Debate about future nuclear energy use must begin - Czech prime minister
Forbes
Nuclear power should be discussed as a future energy use to help maintain economic growth, Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek said at a nuclear forum, the Czech news agency CTK reported.
It was the second time in a month Topolanek spoke in favour of the power source. However his government, with the involvement of the Green party, pledged earlier this year not to build new nuclear power plants during the current election cycle, ending in 2010, hindering plans of dominant Czech power producer CEZ to expand its nuclear power capacity.
Reuters
Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas believes Lithuania can still build a new nuclear power plant by 2015 but uncertainties over the timetable and capacity remain, he said on Monday.
The project, led by Lithuania and involving Latvia, Estonia and Poland, has already become bogged down by Warsaw's demand for one third of the new plant's output.
"We are keeping to the timetable of 2015 but it is difficult to answer very exactly," Kirkilas said in an interview to Reuters.
British Energy names likely nuclear plant sites
The Financial Times
Plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations will take a significant step forward today when British Energy names four sites in the south of England as the first it wants to link to the national grid.
Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent, Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex have been identified as the most likely sites for new nuclear construction.
UN Checks Russian Nuclear Fuel for Iran
AP
Inspectors from the U.N. atomic watchdog agency on Monday began checking uranium fuel that was produced at a Russian facility for Iran's first nuclear power plant, officials said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's experts will certify and seal fuel intended for the power station Russia is building in the Iranian port of Bushehr, said Sergei Guryanov, a spokesman for the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant in Siberia. The plant is Russia's main manufacturer of fuel for nuclear power plants.
Five-nation nuclear inspection team in NKorea: officials
AFP
Officials from the five nations trying to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to observe the disablement of the isolated state's main atomic facility, officials said.
The delegation, including senior US diplomat Sung Kim, will visit the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is slowly being disabled in accordance with an agreement struck in February, they said.
Debate about future nuclear energy use must begin - Czech prime minister
Forbes
Nuclear power should be discussed as a future energy use to help maintain economic growth, Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek said at a nuclear forum, the Czech news agency CTK reported.
It was the second time in a month Topolanek spoke in favour of the power source. However his government, with the involvement of the Green party, pledged earlier this year not to build new nuclear power plants during the current election cycle, ending in 2010, hindering plans of dominant Czech power producer CEZ to expand its nuclear power capacity.
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