Scientist: North Korea builds new nuclear facility

Nov 21, 2010 |

SEOUL

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An American nuclear scientist says North Korea has secretly and quickly built a new facility to enrich uranium. The report raises fears that the north is ramping up its nuclear programme.

The scientist, Siegfried Hecker, says in a report posted on Saturday that he was taken during a recent trip to the north to a facility with a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. He says it had 2,000 recently completed centrifuges. The north told him it was producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor.

He says his first look at the centrifuges was "stunning" and that the "uranium enrichment facility was ultramodern and clean."

He says the facilities appear primarily for civilian nuclear power.

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