38 North “Smoke continues to occur at the Yongbyon nuclear facility… The purpose of operation is unclear”

Input 2021.03.13 17:01 | Revision 2021.03.13 17:03

The US North Korean media outlet 38 North reported on the 12th (local time) that it was discovered that some buildings that produce nuclear materials at the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea were operating. 38 North released a satellite image of a private company taken on the 10th, saying it caught smoke and steam rising from the Yongbyon nuclear facility complex. The Yongbyon nuclear facility is the center of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.

According to a photo released by 38 North, smoke pillars are rising from the thermal power plant in the Yongbyon nuclear facility complex. 38 North explained that the thermal power plant is a facility that supplies steam to a radiochemical laboratory (RCL).

RCL is a place where used nuclear fuel is reprocessed to extract plutonium. 38 Knorth analyzed that steam also erupted at a small cooling facility at the RCL. Plutonium can be used as a raw material for nuclear bombs.

38Norths commented that the purpose of operating the cooling facility is unknown, but it is rare to detect such an appearance.

From the 10th of this month, smoke and steam were caught rising from the uranium dioxide production building in the southwest of the centrifuge concentration facility. Uranium dioxide is used to produce uranium hexafluoride, which is input to enrichment facilities, or metal uranium, which is used to build nuclear reactors. Uranium can also be used in nuclear bombs by increasing its enrichment level.

Yellow matter was also caught around the Uranium Enrichment Plant (UEP).

“In the season, you can often see grains laid out for drying in the sun,” said 38 Nos. “March is not the time to dry the grains, and it is unclear what the substance is.”