"The less enrichment and reprocessing the better," Ms. Tauscher said.
Apparently, she is reprocessing the lines that she once etched into the ice.
On the other hand, countries that have built and tested nuclear weapons have followed other paths than purchasing commercial nuclear reactors, reprocessing the spent fuel, and obtaining plutonium.
Both the converted plutonium and residual uranium-235 in spent fuel can be recycled by chemically reprocessing the fuel and extracting the specific elements of interest.
Second, countries that had built and tested nuclear weapons had followed other paths than simply purchasing commercial nuclear reactors, reprocessing the spent fuel, and obtaining plutonium.
North Korea should therefore undertake to refrain, while talks are under way, from reprocessing the spent fuel and should allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to reseal its reprocessing plant.
But his speech amounted to a nuclear declaration of independence, outlining a plan to undertake the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from mining the ore to reprocessing the spent fuel after its use in a reactor.
Mr. Kim figures that he may as well wait to see whether John Kerry is elected, and he'd also like to finish reprocessing the plutonium and enriching the uranium.
The Bush administration is considering a site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada that has been studied for years, and it has proposed a new look at reprocessing the fuel to remove the long-lived plutonium for reuse as reactor fuel.
On Monday, the North's official news agency, K.C.N.A., said that the country completed reprocessing the 8,000 rods two months ago and had made "significant achievements" in turning the plutonium into an atomic bomb.
