Negotiations start on new South Korea-US accord

Discussions have started between South Korea and the USA towards a new civil nuclear cooperation agreement to replace their existing one, which expires in 2014. They have already agreed to jointly study reprocessing, which has been barred by the existing agreement. 

The Korean delegation to the Washington DC talks was headed by Hyun-Dong Cho, deputy foreign minister for multilateral and global affairs, while the US delegation was led by Robert Einhorn, a special advisor on non-proliferation and arms control to the US State Department.

Following a meeting on 25 October, the US State Department said: "The representatives of the two governments outlined their basic positions regarding negotiations and discussed the schedule and venue for continuing consultations for a new civil nuclear cooperation agreement."

The current nuclear energy cooperation agreement between the USA and South Korea was adopted in 1972 and amended in May 1974. It includes text that prevents South Korea from enriching uranium as well as reprocessing used nuclear fuel in order to reduce waste volumes and recover re-usable uranium and plutonium. This is in line with historic US policies that sought to dissuade other countries from ever separating plutonium, which could be used in atomic weapons. The current agreement is set to expire in early 2014 and it is widely known that South Korea's expanding nuclear industry is keen to reprocess and make the best use of uranium. Nuclear power provides about 40% of South Korean electricity, while all of the 3800 tonnes uranium required for this is imported. Recycling uranium from used fuel would reduce import requirements by about one-third.

The State Department noted that the two sides "discussed a proposed joint study of nuclear power reactor spent fuel disposition options, including pyroprocessing." It said, "They agreed that technical experts would meet soon to work out the scope of the study and the venue and schedule for completing it."

Cho told the Korea Herald that if the joint study does not produce a satisfactory outcome by March 2013 – to leave time for parliamentary approval – the new agreement will include a clause to the effect that pyroprocessing technology may be considered after completion of the joint study.

The USA and South Korea have previously collaborated on reprocessing research. Much of the R&D was conducted in the USA, based on earlier US work in 1970s, but paid for by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). However, the US government later suspended this.

The recent administration of President George Bush did not oppose South Korea's plan to construct facilities for research on pyroprocessing. In 2008, the IAEA approved an electrorefining laboratory - the Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process Facility (ACPF) at KAERI, which is to be built by 2011 and expanded to engineering scale by 2012.  This is envisaged as the first stage of a Korea Advanced Pyroprocessing Facility (KAPF) to start experimentally in 2016 and become a commercial-scale demonstration plant in 2025.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News