Satellite Imagery Shows North Koreans Building New Facilities at Yongbyon Nuclear Complex

William Mugford and Jack Liu

September 9, 2015

North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Facility: New Activity at the Plutonium Production Complex 

Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates new activity is underway at two areas in the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center–the 5 MWe Reactor and Radiochemical Laboratory complex–that are key to the production of plutonium for building nuclear weapons. Specifically:

• Imagery from August 22 indicates a high level of vehicle activity not previously observed in front of the 5 MWe reactor hall. Vehicle tracks extend into the ground level of the building beneath an overhanging four-story annex on the east end of the reactor hall out to a road where large trucks can easily maneuver. Also, a large truck is seen in position apparently awaiting a load. The level of track activity indicates that this is not the first truck to be loaded with material from the hall.

• The same imagery shows significant vehicular activity at the Radiochemical Laboratory complex where plutonium is chemically separated from uranium and other radioactive materials as well as converted into metal form, the raw material for building nuclear weapons. Heavy vehicle tracks from the road enter the facility, circle a support building and then extend to the spent fuel receiving building at the southwest end of the 190-meter long reprocessing plant. While some tracks lead directly to the spent fuel receiving building–across the road from where the spent fuel enters the main reprocessing building–others circle the support building suggesting that there may be a line of trucks waiting to unload at different times. There are a number of vehicles and piles of unidentified material in this area that may be associated with this operation.

Read the full analysis and view satellite imagery at 38 North.