Korea Committed to Nuclear Transparency

KINAC strives to enhance transparency of nuclear activities and secure international confidence

Here are excerpts of a recent interview between NewsWorld and Lee Hun-gyu, president of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC), which spoke about Korea's commitment to peaceful uses of nuclear power, verification and control of nuclear materials- Ed.
Question: Will you explain KINAC's major responsibilities?
Answer: KINAC was established not only to ensure that the government complies with their obligations to such international treaties as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but also to execute professional tasks commissioned by the government. We take responsibility for enhancing Korea's international standing and contributing to the nation's development by securing technological capabilities for nuclear transparency and building confidence. In order to fulfill these goals, KINAC has built up partnerships with such international institutions as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and has a vision of evolving into a world-class international organization. In compliance with the Act on Atomic Power, KINAC carries out the following tasks (stipulated on the Act on Atomic Power, Article 9, Section 6):
- Examines and checks the measurement and management of nuclear materials
- Complies with the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol to the IAEA Safeguards Agreement
- Regulates import and export controls of international embargoed goods and related technology
- Examines and inspects the physical protection of nuclear materials and nuclear facilities
- Researches nuclear controls and develops technology
- Supports international cooperation on nuclear controls
- Educates on nuclear controls
Q: Will you tell us about the four principles for the peaceful use of nuclear energy the Korean government proclaimed?
A: The global community has Korea's nuclear activities under surveillance as the nation's nuclear utilization has already reached world-class levels. The bigger Korea's national power and technological capabilities grow and expand, the more we should sincerely respect the commitments we have made with the international society and adopt wiser policies.
In an effort to solve an unfortunate case of the IAEA's belated uncovering of Korea's conducting of a clandestine enriched uranium test, subject to the 2000 IAEA regulations, and having been almost submitted to the U.N. Security Council, and restoring its tarnished external standing, the Korean government made public the following four principles for the peaceful use of nuclear energy on Sept. 18, 2004.
- The government once again declares it does not intend to develop or own nuclear weapons.
- It firmly ensures nuclear transparency and strengthens international cooperation.
- It sincerely sticks to international regulations.
- It strives to expand the peaceful uses of nuclear energy based on international confidence.
Announcing the principles, the related minister said:
- It steps up international cooperation concerning nuclear controls and sincerely complies with the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol to the IAEA Safeguards Agreement.
- Actively cooperates with IAEA inspections and takes steps befitting the outcomes of its checks.
- Korea endeavors to ensure the safety of nuclear energy and expand the peaceful uses of nuclear energy by securing a high level of confidence and transparency from the international community in nuclear controls since its dependence on nuclear power is enormous.

Q: Will you speak about Korea's efforts to beef up international cooperation with the IAEA as the nation has joined the ranks of state parties with an Integrated Safeguards (IS) regime?
A: The IAEA has so far unilaterally planned and conducted inspections in Korea and has informed the country of their outcomes. As Korea joined the state parties with an Integrated Safeguards regime last July, the nation moved toward an advanced collaboration regime of sharing technology, information, manpower and budget with each other.
Following the implementation of the IS approach, Korea has seen the IAEA's inspections into Korean pressured water reactors reduced to one-third what was made in the past. The nation's 16 nuclear units, KINAC and the IAEA headquarters have been hooked up via a remote monitoring (RM) system, contributing to a reduction in inspections and costs.
The RM system has recently changed to a virtual private network (VPN) for remote monitoring, which has led to cutting down on transmitting costs in Korea as well as savings for the IAEA side.
As the equipment developed in Korea has been certified as A-class by the IAEA, Korea has gained recognition for its higher monitoring technology. Korea strives to strengthen a regime of promoting cooperation with the IAEA in such core areas as manpower, equipment and technology.
Q: Will you tell us about the rising demand for nuclear verification and the ushering in of the so-called nuclear renaissance era?
A: The IAEA forecast that the demand for nuclear verification will surge about 45 percent across the world by 2020 and some 50 percent by 2030.
This demand projection is based on views of many experts who forecast the nuclear renaissance era. For instance, such countries as India and China are establishing plans to construct large-scale nuclear power plants. Nations wanting to introduce nuclear power units for commercial use total 27, including Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian countries as well as a few Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries.
The IAEA has recently established the "Vision 2020," designed not only to effectively cope with a movement toward expanded uses of nuclear power, but to prevent the imprudent introduction of nuclear power from becoming a threat of uncontrolled nuclear proliferation in international society.
In principle, the IAEA looks to turn to verification based on technology and information in order to make verification effective, but not to undermine confidence and independence. Under zero-growth budget constraints, the IAEA expects countries like Korea with an advanced verification system and technology not only to make more contributions, but to lend a helping hand to states lacking verification resources.
Korea needs to gain greater external recognition for its nuclear transparency and strengthen international cooperation in order to help Korea expand nuclear power and foster it as an exporting industry in the years to come. To this end, Korea strives to do its utmost to revamp its national export and import control systems, raise capabilities concerning its across-the-board nuclear controls, including ones related to the state systems of accounting for and control of nuclear materials and enhance its contributions to international society in the nuclear nonproliferation field.
Q: What are some mid- and long-term strategies designed to secure core technologies for ensuring safeguards and physical protection?
A: KINAC established a mid- and long-term plan to develop itself into a nuclear power regulation agency corresponding to the standards of advanced countries. The three-stage plan was worked out through external and internal environment analysis, the benchmarking of foreign institutions and the SWOT analysis.
Our information process capability in the safeguards field is close to the levels of advanced countries. However, the reality is that Korea lags behind the standards of the IAEA in terms of the quality of inspection and verification & evaluation technology. In particular, Korea needs to upgrade its technology in the infinitesimal environmental sampling analysis area.
In the physical protection field, an organic collaboration should be ensured among related institutions in setting national threat standards, particularly developing technologies related to the accounting of nuclear materials, including the one on the detection of nuclear materials, which needs to be developed over a long period of time and in a systematic manner according to the mid- and long-term roadmap.
If the mid- and long-term development plan is completed by 2017, Korea is expected to evolve into a global leader capable of verification.
When it comes to the mid- and long-term strategy for securing core technologies for ensuring safeguards, the nation established the "national safeguards technology mid- and long-term development strategy" and the "mid- and long-term KINAC development plan" in 2007. The former suggests the development of focus technologies that will jump-start the global safeguards field and enhance effects and efficiency in Korea as well as respond to environmental changes through periodic supplementation and adjustments.
The latter calls for the development of a radiation measurement system as part of efforts to ramp up basic and original technology development, the localizing of an unattended monitoring system as part of efforts to step up technological competitiveness by making the most of the nation's strength -- convergence technology and the developing of environmental sampling analysis by strategically capitalizing on our R&D infrastructure.
The third nuclear power promotion master plan (2007-2011) contains a list of technology items to be developed for building a national physical protection regime. The nation established a mid- and long-term strategy for securing core technology for the implementation of a national physical protection system. We plan to build technical ties with the IAEA, the United States and Japan to secure technology considered difficult to develop on its own while securing core technology through joint research or the introduction of technology. Industry, academic and research circles are cultivating a collaboration system to develop physical protection technology. They also strive to carry out joint research on core technology.
Q: Will you tell us about how Korea has built up export and import control systems on nuclear materials and other nuclear diversion items and the status of accounting for and control of nuclear materials?
A: Nuclear materials and other nuclear power-related goods and services that could be a danger for nuclear proliferation can be exported only when exporters are given an assurance that importers will utilize them only for peaceful purposes.
KINAC is an export control agency specializing in the establishment of national policies on export controls, supporting international cooperation as well as the technological review of export permits on exporting items, importers' government guarantees on exports and the approval of the exporting and importing of nuclear materials. Export control items are specified in the integrated public notice on the export and import of strategic commodities, and the control commodities and the related technologies can be transferred abroad with licenses from the government.
Korea's export/import control on nuclear materials and other materials in the nuclear power field is stipulated in the Atomic Power Act. The specific procedures on the implementation of export/import control are specified in the integrated public notice on the export and import of strategic commodities. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)'s Nuclear Power Control Team executes export/import controls of nuclear and strategic materials.
KINAC is operating the Nuclear Export Promotion Service (NEPS), an on-line system that made its debut in 2008, in order to ensure the efficient management of export/import controls of nuclear materials and provide convenience to corporate users.
Nuclear power exporting companies submit all civil applications related to the exporting of nuclear materials and the nuclear power field via NEPS to the MEST, which commissions their technology reviews to KINAC and approves the results of the reviews before returning them to the applicants via the on-line system.
Korea operates the State Systems of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Materials (SSAC), a full-scope safeguards measure reached between Korea and the IAEA under which such inspections as the Design Information Verification and Physical Inventory Verification are conducted against a total of 35 facilities subject to accounting for and control of nuclear materials. Data on accounting for and control of nuclear materials is collected periodically from each facility and put under integrated management, so each facility's nuclear inventory and inventory change can be confirmed at the situation room of KINAC.
As the demand for nuclear power and the utilization of nuclear materials are forecast to rise in the years to come, KINAC strives to do its utmost in strengthening national inspectors' capability and securing professional manpower in order to account for and control nuclear materials in a more thorough manner. We've built up the real-time safeguards integration information system and upgraded the accounting for and control of nuclear materials as well as safeguards to the levels of advanced countries, thus contributing to enhancing transparency of nuclear activities and securing international confidence. nw

Lee Hun-gyu, president of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC)

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control has been established to enhance the professional capabilities of the Korean nuclear industry and to ensure compliance with international treaties and regulatory trends (inset, KINAC researchers at work)