ANL Director Visited KAERI

Dr. Peter B. Littlewood, ANL Director, visited KAERI on February 26, 2016. During a meeting with the ANL Director, Dr. J.K. Kim, President of KAERI, expressed his thanks for taking the time out of his busy schedule to visit KAERI to discuss ways to promote bilateral cooperation between KAERI and ANL. Dr. Kim mentioned that bilateral cooperation has been on-going in areas such as fast reactors, VHTRs for hydrogen production, and advanced fuel cycle technology development through participation in the government-led annual joint steering committee, and the I-NERI program.

He noted that KAERI has participated in the ROK-US joint study on pyroprocessing together with ANL, which has possessed rich research experience in pyroprocessing. He expressed his hope that the visit by the ANL director to KAERI will provide a significant momentum to create synergy effects through the development of technologies in mutually beneficial areas such as Gen-IV nuclear energy systems, the pyroprocessing process, and VHTR for hydrogen production.

Dr. Littlewood stated that ANL is committed to lending his full support in the development of an SFR, which has been an area of robust and long-term cooperation between both countries. He is very interested in the current status of Korea’s medical research, including the supply of medical radioisotopes and radiopharmaecuticals. Prior to coming to Korea, he visited Japan to discuss ways to promote cooperation with universities there in the areas of materials and storage battery. He took a technical tour of the KAERI facilities such as PRIDE, STELLA-1, and ATLAS.

KAERI has teamed up with ANL to develop the Prototype Generation-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) by signing an MOU on August 25, 2014 for a broad field of technical cooperation on nuclear science and technology, including the PGSFR project. A PGSFR is a 400 MWth, 150 MWe advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor that incorporates many innovative design features, in particular, metal fuel, which enables inherent safety characteristics. With Argonne’s support, KAERI is developing a reactor system, whereas the Korean engineering and construction firm KEPCO E&C is designing the balance of the plant. The PGSFR Project aims to secure design approval from the Korean licensing authority by the end of 2020, and the schedule calls for the PGSFR to be commissioned by the end of 2028.