TEHRAN, February 21 - The “highly unusual aerosol particle containing a very small amount of enriched uranium" was first discovered by experts from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2016.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - It was the first time the substance with the uranium-235 have been found for the first time in 20 years of searches.
Now, nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen has argued Kim Jong-un may be responsible for the particle that can fuel nuclear reactions.
He said: “My best guess is that the source is North Korea.
“North Korea has a small reactor and does have gas centrifuges for slightly enriching uranium 235.
“It is possible in either creating new fuel or in extracting plutonium from fuel that has already been in their reactor, some enriched uranium escaped and went airborne.”
The researchers who discovered the particle said they knew it was “definitely not from a natural source” but could have come from burnt nuclear fuel, adding to suspicions that Kim Jong-un could have played a part.
They said: “The particle was encountered when we were making no special attempt to sample radioactive material.
“We don’t know the source for this particle.
“It may indicate a novel source where enriched uranium was dispersed.”
The scientists made the findings when their research plane was flying over the Aleutian Islands in 2016 and detected the uranium floating about four miles above Alaska’s far-western island chain.
The leader of the study, Dan Murphy, said to Gizmodo: “It’s not a significant amount of radioactive debris by itself.
“But it’s the implication that there’s some very small source of uranium that we don’t understand.”
Source: Express
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