K.A.CARE Delegation visited KAERI

A delegation from the Saudi Arabia’s K.A.CARE (King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy), including its Vice President Dr. Waleed Abu Alfaraj, visited KAERI on November 25th, 2015. The delegation participated in the 1st Korea-Saudi Nuclear Energy Cooperation Committee and the 1st SMART Steering Committee a day before in Seoul. The visit to KAERI was arranged for the two sides to have bilateral discussions on the SMART PPE cooperation. During the bilateral meeting, Dr. Abu Alfaraj said that he was very pleased to visit the world leading institute for nuclear R&D area. He expressed his admiration for the impressive success history in Korea’s nuclear technology development. He emphasized that SMART was the No.1 priority within K.A.CARE and showed his eagerness for promoting close cooperation with KAERI to successfully carry out the SMART project, referring to the SMART PPE as “an opening for a long journey”. Sharing his comments, Dr. Jong kyung Kim, president of KAERI, promised his commitment to leading cooperation between KAERI and K.A.CARE to a success in the future. After the discussion, representatives of the two sides signed an amendment to the SMART PPE agreement. The K.A.CARE delegation also took a tour of the SMART-ITL Test Facility, research reactor HANARO and inspected workplace environment at KAERI to be provided for K.A.CARE trainees. Saudi trainees are scheduled to start their training for 3 years from March 2016 at KAERI under the PPE agreement signed between KAERI and K.A.CARE.

K.A.CARE was established in April 2010 by a royal decree of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in a bid to play a central role in setting up a national nuclear program. In March 2015, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) and K.A.CARE signed an MOU for cooperation in SMART technology sharing partnership and its commercialization. The MOU also calls for the two countries to cooperate on the commercialization and promotion of the SMART reactor to third countries. As the first phase of the partnership, SMART PPE Agreement was signed between KAERI and K.A.CARE in September 2015 aimed at building SMART reactors and developing human resources capability to run them. Under the deal, the two countries will conduct a three-year preliminary study to review the feasibility of constructing SMART reactors in Saudi Arabia.