Radioactive gas detected after N.Korea nuke
claim
Posted: 21 June 2010 2321 hrs
SEOUL : South Korean scientists detected a high level of
xenon gas -- a by-product of atomic tests -- two days after North
Korea last month claimed it staged a successful nuclear experiment,
officials said Monday.
The North on May 12 announced it had conducted a nuclear fusion
reaction, a claim greeted with scepticism in the South at the time
because of the technical difficulty inherent in the fusion
process.
Xenon is produced during the nuclear fission process.
Monday's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said the xenon readings taken near
the border raised speculation the North had carried out some sort
of small-scale nuclear test aimed at developing fusion
technology.
"The amount of xenon detected in the air at the Geojin monitoring
site in Goseong county on May 14 was eight times more than normal,"
a science and education ministry official told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
The official said the ministry could not determine the reason for
the abnormally high level of xenon, a gas that occurs in the
atmosphere in trace amounts.
"There was no tremor -- which usually goes with nuclear explosions
-- detected at the time," the official said. "Xenon may have come
from a nuclear reactor elsewhere or due to a reason we have yet to
fully understand."
The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, affiliated to the ministry,
also confirmed the detection of a high level of xenon on May 14 but
declined to elaborate.
South Korean scientists used xenon readings to confirm the North's
first nuclear test on October 9, 2006. The North staged a second
test in May 2009.
Nuclear fusion potentially promises clean and limitless energy but
can also be employed to make hydrogen bombs.
The North's announcement last month did not link the alleged fusion
breakthrough to its atomic weapons programme.
Pyongyang's official media reported on May 12 that the North's
scientists, using their own technology, had conducted a nuclear
fusion reaction.
"The successful nuclear fusion marks a great event that
demonstrated the rapidly developing cutting-edge science and
technology of (North Korea)," said party newspaper Rodong
Sinmun.
South Korean experts doubted that the North -- which suffers
persistent power shortages in everyday life -- had made major
progress in the process.
Yang Hyung-Lyeol, of South Korea's state-funded National Fusion
Research Institute, said at the time the North may have begun
operating a small-scale magnetic nuclear fusion device.
But Yang said there would be no comparison with a major project in
which the South is involved -- the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor project to build a fusion power plant by the
mid 2030s.
- AFP/ir
