The Indian government is now under intense internal pressure to test the H-bomb again, in the face of ongoing bilateral talks in which the U.S. seeks to persuade India to agree to a global nuclear test ban. Political and industry sources said this week that the new government of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung will likely look askance at previous plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from Korean reactors and then use the recovered plutonium as fuel. Less than a year after the White House told Pakistan its security interests would not be served by starting up an unsafeguarded plutonium production reactor at Khushab because Pakistan could not reprocess the spent fuel, U.S. executive branch officials now say they fear instead that Pakistan is operating that reactor to produce weapons-grade plutonium and will separate the plutonium and use it in the country's ongoing nuclear weapons program. When inspectors walked through Germany's Unterweser nuclear plant on June 6 after it had shut down, they were shocked to find that workers had disconnected and disabled an entire key safety system, according to internal documents obtained by Nucleonics Week. In an emergency, they would not have been able to prevent a major radioactive leak and contamination inside the plant.
Critical questions regarding India's nuclear capabilities remain unanswered.
To More U.S. Intelligence Failures. The State Department denied Korean reports that Washington will pay some construction costs for nuclear reactors in North Korea. South Korea and Japan are falling out over a plan to intensify nuclear cooperation in the Pacific region. Leading Nuclear Firm Emerging from Financial Crisis. Government to review nuclear-related export to China.