Other Names: Yŏngbyŏn Pilot-Scale Fuel Fabrication Factory, Yŏngbyŏn Pilot-Scale Nuclear Fuel Rod Production Factory (寧邊實驗用核燃料棒生産工場), Pilot-Scale Nuclear Fuel Rod Production Facility (實驗用核燃料棒製造施設)
Location: Pun’gang-chigu (分江地區), Yŏngbyŏn-kun (寧邊郡), North P’yŏng’an Province (平安北道), North Korea
Subordinate to: Yŏngbyŏn Nuclear Research Center (寧邊原子力硏究센터), General Department of Atomic Energy (原子力總局), Cabinet (內閣)
Size: Estimated throughput of about 15 MTU per year
Primary Function: Fuel fabrication
Description: This facility is reportedly located in the “oldest part” of the Yŏngbyŏn Nuclear Complex and has been decommissioned. North Korea completed construction of the plant in 1983, but closed it in 1986. This plant produced the fuel for the first core of the 5MW (e) reactor, and IAEA inspectors visited the plant in February 1993. However, North Korean officials did not give IAEA inspectors any technical information about the facility. IAEA inspectors described the plant as “largely abandoned.” According to Dr. Shin Sŏng T’aek of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, North Korea used indigenous technology to establish this plant for pilot production, but experienced technical difficulties and had to close the plant down. North Korea then turned to the former Soviet Union for technical assistance to build a new fuel fabrication plant. [Note: North Korea signed the NPT in December 1985 under pressure from the former USSR, and probably received technical assistance for a new fuel fabrication plant as a quid pro quo for signing the treaty.]
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Updated April 2003 |
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