North Korea has long admitted to turning spent plutonium fuel from its nuclear reactors into bomb fuel.

Loading plutonium fuel would require a license amendment, and that requires public hearings, something no utility relishes.

This is the first large-scale shipment of commercial plutonium fuel, the opening step toward global trade in this dangerous material.

The need for plutonium fuel has receded.

Japan hoped to turn nuclear waste into plutonium fuel to meet its energy needs.

Asked if the North had produced additional plutonium fuel or actual weapons, the official said: "I would mean both.

Their plan had been simple: pretend to be kidnapped, along with a small quantity of the new plutonium 239 fuel.

But plutonium fuel can be, and that is the point your editorial of Dec. 11 fails to emphasize.

Each of these steps increases the risk of theft, which is why there has been a 20-year policy against using plutonium fuel in the United States.

The North Koreans have built an extraction plant the size of an aircraft carrier, big enough to handle all three reactors' plutonium fuel.