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If North Korea reprocessed spent nuclear fuel from its 5MW nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in the first half of this year, it probably extracted enough weapon-grade plutonium to make between two and four nuclear weapons, an American research institute estimates.

The estimate was made on Aug. 22 by David Albright, director of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), an American public policy institute, as part of remarks about a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and about North Korea’s claims that it had reprocessed spent nuclear fuel.

“The IAEA writes that North Korea could have unloaded the fuel from the 5 megawatt-electric (MWe) reactor [at Yongbyon] late last year and processed it to separate plutonium in the Radiochemical Laboratory during the first half of this year,” Albright wrote. “In this case, we have estimated that North Korea could have produced and separated an additional 5.5-8 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium.”

“This amount of plutonium is enough for two to four nuclear weapons, assuming 2-4 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium per weapon,” Albright added.

In an Aug. 19 report, the IAEA observed that chemical tanks had been brought into the reprocessing facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex this year and that there was activity suggesting that reprocessing-related machinery was running again. This indicates that North Korea restarted its reprocessing facilities at Yongbyon in the first half of this year, the IAEA concluded in its report.

During a written interview with Japan’s Kyodo News on Aug. 17, North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute claimed that it had reprocessed spent nuclear fuel removed from its graphite-moderated nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

The possibility that North Korea has reprocessed spent nuclear fuel taken from the Yongbyon reactor has been repeatedly raised since the beginning of the year.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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