Assistant to US President for Science and Technology Visited KAERI

A group of U.S. delegation headed by Dr. John Holdren, the Assistant to US President for Science and Technology, visited KAERI on March 29, 2016. The  U.S. delegation visited Korea to participate in the 9th Korea-U.S. Joint Committee Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation which was held in Seoul on March 31.

The US delegation was briefed on R&D activities being carried out at KAERI and discussed a wide range of issues, including ways to promote nuclear cooperation between two countries. At the meeting, Dr. John Holdren noted that recognizing the sustainable development and utilization of nuclear energy, the current administration of President Barack Obama has been making efforts to deal with the issues to be urgently addressed in the States such as competition between cheap natural gas and renewable energy popular in the US and management of spent fuel and radioactive waste disposal. He said that the US is concentrating its resources on research into advanced reprocessing under advanced fuel cycle initiative.

KAERI representative noted that South Korea and the U.S. will hold the first general meeting of their high-level commission, charged with enforcing a bilateral nuclear energy partnership accord, in Seoul in April, 2016 and that Korea has a high expectation for more expanded cooperation in managing spent fuel than ever. The nuclear energy accord, reached last year, allows Seoul to expand its peaceful nuclear activity through research into a nascent nuclear-reprocessing technology, known as "pyroprocessing."

The US delegation made a tour of PRIDE(Pyroprocess integrated inactive demonstration facility) facility. It was constructed at KAERI and it began test operation in 2012. The purpose of PRIDE is to test the process regarding unit process performance, remote operation of equipment, integration of unit processes, scale-up of process, process monitoring, argon environment system operation, and safeguards-related activities. A ceremony celebrating the completion of PRIDE facility was held in December 2015.

Dr. John Holdren is currently the senior advisor for US science and technology policy and during the Clinton administration, he served as a member of PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) for two terms, in particular in the area of preventing theft of nuclear materials, disposition of surplus weapon plutonium and fusion energy.