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: General Department of Atomic Energy (原子力總局), Cabinet (內閣), and/or 5th Machine Industry Bureau (5機械工業總局), Korean Workers Party (朝鮮勞動黨) [Note: the 5th Machine Industry Bureau was originally under the Atomic Energy Committee (原子力委員會), which is currently called the General Department of Atomic Energy Industry. However, in 1987, when the Atomic Energy Committee was renamed the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry (原子力工業部), the 5th Machine Industry Bureau was directly placed under the Korean Workers Party. See organizational chart.]

Size: During 1992-1993, this plant was reportedly manufacturing fuel rods that contained 100 tons of uranium per year. Each rod contains 6.25kg of uranium; therefore, the plant was producing about 16,000 fuel rods per year. However, the plant is said to be capable of producing much more, up to 200-300 tons, and enough for the T’aech’ŏn 200MW(e) reactor that was then under construction but now frozen by the Agreed Framework.

Primary Function: Uranium conversion and fuel fabrication

Description: North Korea operated a pilot-scale fuel fabrication plant in the Yŏngbyŏn Nuclear Complex from 1983 to 1986. However, technical difficulties forced North Korea to close the pilot production plant and to request Soviet technical assistance to build a new fuel fabrication facility. Construction of the Yŏngbyŏn Fuel Fabrication Plant began in 1986 and became operational in early 1987. This plant is capable of converting yellowcake into UO2 and can produce Magnox fuel rods with both magnesium-aluminum cladding (which were used in the 5MW (e) reactor), and magnesium-zirconium cladding.

An anonymous defector claims that this plant processed uranium milled at the Pakch’ŏn Uranium Milling Facility. In December 1992, North Korea was reportedly modifying or expanding the Yŏngbyŏn Fuel Fabrication Plant to produce fuel for the 50MW(e) and 200MW(e) reactors that were under construction in Yŏngbyŏn-kun and T’aech’ŏn-kun, respectively. This facility produced the approximate 8,000 fuel rods that were discharged from the 5MW(e) reactor in Yŏngbyŏn in 1994 and now canned and stored in a temporary dry storage facility in Yŏngbyŏn. The Yŏngbyŏn Fuel Fabrication Plant is now frozen under the Agreed Framework.

	Updated April 2003

Key Sources:
Interview with Dr. Shin Sŏng T’aek, chief of the Force Development Research Team, Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, by CNS senior research associate Daniel A. Pinkston and CNS research associate Mari Sudo, 4 September 2002, Monterey; Chang Chun Ik, Pukhan Haek-Missile Chŏnjaeng, (Seoul: Sŏmundang, 1999), pp. 150-151; David Albright, “Overview of North Korea’s Nuclear Fuel-Cycle Facilities in the Early 1990s,” in David Albright and Kevin O’Neill, eds., Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle, (Washington, D.C.: Institute For Science And International Security, 2000), p. 145; Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., “Exposing North Korea’s Secret Nuclear Infrastructure—Part Two,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, August 1999, p. 43; Kim Yŏng Shik, “Haek Kaebal Ch’ongbonsan P’yŏngbuk Yŏngbyŏndanji,” Segye Ilbo, 30 April 1997, p. 17, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr >; “Pukhanwŏnjŏn 1 Ki Kadong 2 Ki Kŏnsŏljung: Il, Wŏnjaryŏksan’ŏphwoe Chosa Palp’yo,” Segye Ilbo, 18 December 1992, p. 13, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr>; ChuTae San, “Mi ‘Pukhaekch’ot’ohwa’ Scenario: ‘Yŏngbyŏn Yebangp’okryŏk’ Shilshihandamyŏn,” Segye Ilbo, 11 June 1994, p. 5, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr>; Lee Yong U, “‘Uranium T’amsa Tŭng Haekkaebal Hyŏl’an’/Pukhansŏ Kwisunhan 3 Myŏng Kijahwoegyŏn,” Segye Ilbo, 10 May 1994, p. 26, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr>; Son Sŏng Jin, ‘Pyongyang Uranium Kongjang Ch’ulshin T’alch’ulja Kim Tae Ho Ssi Chŭng’ŏn,” Taehan Maeil, 13 May 1994, p. 5, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr >; Mark Hibbs, “North Korea Fabricating Fuel for Second, Larger Reactor,” Nuclear Fuel, 17 January 1994, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 9.