USNRC Delegation visited KAERI

A group of USNRC delegation headed by Mr.. Stephen Burns, Chairman of USNRC, visited KAERI on July 12, 2016 to discuss a wide range of issues, including ways to promote technical cooperation, especially nuclear safety research between USNRC and KAERI. 

The USNRC delegation was briefed on the overall R&D activities carried out at KAERI, and KAERI’s direction for nuclear safety research.

Dr. J. K. Kim, President of KAERI, noted that Korea has maintained a close relationship with the US in the areas of nuclear energy and safety over the past decades, and that support from the US has been a great asset to Korea’s development of nuclear technology and improvements in nuclear safety.

KAERI expressed its appreciation for the biggest support the USNRC has provided for the launching and implementation of the OECD/NEA ATLAS Project, which is an international project with KAERI playing a leading role.

H.E. Stephen Burns mentioned that the purpose of his first visit to Korea was to seek opportunities to promote cooperation in the area of nuclear safety, and that he hoped that his visit would give a significant momentum to stepping up the bilateral cooperation between our two countries. The USNRC delegation expressed their interest in knowing Korea’s plans for the industrial deployment of SMART in the future following the launching of cooperation with K.A.CARE of Saudi Arabia.

The USNRC delegation made a technical tour of an integral-effect test loop for SMART (SMART-ITL), which was designed to simulate the integral thermal-hydraulic behavior of SMART and the ATLAS facility, a large-scale thermal-hydraulic integral effect test (IET) facility for evolutionary pressurized water reactors APR1400 and OPR1000, with the ATLAS facility opened for utilization as an international joint project (OECD ATLAS) in which USNRC is participating.

KAERI and U.S. NRC will strengthen their cooperation in the field of safety assessment methodology and safety enhancement for nuclear power plants, which require close cooperation for further technological development in the near future.

In particular, because USNRC has rich experience and its own infrastructure in developing advanced thermal-hydraulic computer codes and related research areas, active bilateral cooperation through joint research and information and personnel exchanges between the two organizations will contribute to the improvement of domestic NPP safety. 

Under the framework of the US-Korea Joint Standing Committee on Nuclear Energy Cooperation, NRC and KAERI are actively engaged in bilateral cooperation in such areas as severe accident research, human reliability analysis, thermal-hydraulic safety research, nuclear waste disposal technology, and instrumentation and control (I&C).

The USNRC delegation visited Korea to participate in the bilateral annual meeting with NSSC (Nuclear Safety and Security Commission) and to visit nuclear organizations, including KAERI, KINS, KINAC, the Kori nuclear power plant, and Doosan Heavy Industries &Construction.