North Korea Says It Achieves Nuclear Fusion Reaction (Update3)
May 12 (Bloomberg) --
North Korea said it carried out a nuclear fusion reaction last month to help develop clean energy, a technology no nation has yet harnessed for commercial use.
The experiment took place last month and was achieved using only North Korean technology, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper said today in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has completed basic research into nuclear fusion reactions, the report said.
"The technology North Korea claims to have developed seems to be in very, very early stages," said Song Ki Chang, a researcher at the Daejeon, South Korea-based Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.
"It seems the claim is more aimed at boasting about its nuclear technology prowess to the world."
Global scientists are working to create a nuclear fusion power plant, which would produce little radioactive waste, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Any advance by North Korea would likely be insignificant and have limited immediate use for power generation or making a weapon, Song said.
A fusion reaction, which differs from the nuclear fission occurring in existing power plants, also takes place in a thermonuclear weapon, or hydrogen bomb. Several countries have achieved nuclear fusion in experiments, including South Korea, though none have put the technology to commercial use, Song said.
'Incredibly Unlikely'
"Based on the past sixty years of research on atomic structures and existing fusion reactions, I find it incredibly unlikely that scientists in North Korea have been able to carry out nuclear fusion," Daniel Aldrich, a political science assistant professor at Purdue University in Indiana, said in an e-mail. "Western nations and Japan have spent literally billions of dollars and put in thousands of hours of research into creating a fusion reactor, and we have yet to generate any significant results."
North Korea "made a definitive breakthrough toward the development of new energy," the KCNA report said, without specifying how the fusion technology will be used. Kim Jong Il's regime has tested two nuclear devices, the second in May 2009, which prompted the United Nations Security Council to toughen economic sanctions.
North Korea vowed in April 2009 never to return to multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons program, and has refused to return until the sanctions are removed. The negotiations, also involving China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S., last convened in December 2008.
'Worrisome Development'
"It's North Korea's way of saying, 'Meet our demands and resume the talks, or our nuclear technology will only get more sophisticated,'" said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "While it remains to be seen if their claim is true, development of any kind of nuclear-related technology by North Korea is worrisome."
Since it quit the disarmament talks, North Korea restored its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which had been disabled under a February 2007 accord. The country told the UN Security Council in September it was "weaponizing" plutonium and has almost succeeded in highly enriching uranium, the second means of creating an atomic device.