One of the largest sources of scrap steel is the reprocessing of old automobile bodies.
Experts believe it would be easiest for Iran to build a nuclear bomb from uranium, rather than from plutonium, which requires the reprocessing of spent reactor fuel.
Under the 8 billion euro ($11.86 billion) deal, Areva will also cooperate with the Chinese on future civilian nuclear energy, including the reprocessing of spent fuel.
The experts also say that the move by North Korea is dangerous because the reprocessing of nuclear fuel from spent fuel rods can begin within months.
China's ambitions to lead the world in nuclear power were boosted today by reports that its scientists had mastered a key technique in the reprocessing of spent uranium.
Missile tests, the unilateral canceling of contracts with South Korea, the reprocessing of spent fuel rods, and now declaring an exclusive economic zone that conflicts with South Korean maritime claims — all point to a newly emboldened military influencing decision-making.
The official also argued that it might take the reprocessing of spent fuel rods to bring a real sense of urgency to China, South Korea and Japan about the weapons programs.
But the reprocessing of nuclear fuel has become one of the most delicate issues of the nuclear safety debate because it separates plutonium and uranium in forms that might be stolen or diverted to illicit nuclear weapons programs.
But if North Korea continues to expand its nuclear activities and, in particular, if it pursues the reprocessing of its spent fuel rods, the United States will have no choice but to fundamentally reassess its commitment to a diplomatic resolution.
"They admitted to having just about completed the reprocessing of 8,000 rods, and they admitted to an effort to expand their nuclear production program," Representative Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, was quoted as telling Reuters in Seoul.
The North Korean diplomats read a statement from Pyongyang declaring that the reprocessing of the rods, a chemical process that the North perfected in the late 1980's after receiving considerable foreign help, had been completed on June 30.
