1.   And buildings, such as the huge B-Plant used to extract plutonium, are being decontaminated and shut down ahead of schedule.

2.   And the plutonium can be extracted without shutting down the unit, and thus in comparative secrecy.

3.   Before the agreement, North Korea had threatened to begin reprocessing the fuel rods, extracting plutonium that could be used for bombs.

4.   But how about giving Iran reactors and getting its word of honor not to extract plutonium?

5.   It lags these nations because they poured time and money into research on enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel to extract plutonium as part of their atomic weapons programs.

6.   It is harder to extract plutonium for use in nuclear weapons from such reactors than from the kind now in use there.

7.   Reprocessing involves dissolving old fuel rods in acid and extracting the plutonium.

8.   The new reactors would make it more difficult for the North to extract plutonium for bombs than it is with its current graphite reactors.

9.   The plutonium has been extracted from scrap material at Rocky Flats and old pits removed from dismantled weapons at Pantex.

10.   Washington wrested agreement from Pyongyang not to reprocess its spent fuel to extract plutonium and to halt construction of the new reactors.