South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) held their Nuclear Power Joint Committee meeting in Seoul last spring where they discussed ways to enhance cooperation on 43 agenda items covering six areas including nuclear power generation, nuclear technology research and development (R&D), nuclear fuel and waste management, nuclear safety, radioactive isotope and radiation applications, and nuclear security. Korean participants of the meeting were led by the 1st Vice Minister of Science, ICT and Planning Lee Seok-jun, and the team from China was headed by Chair Xu Dazhe of the CAEA.
Lee Seok-jun’s Ministry aims to use the joint committee as a springboard for expanding partnerships with China, which is pursuing a policy of active expansion of its nuclear industry, in areas such as nuclear safety and security in order to strengthen the region’s nuclear safety regime. Noting that China holds advanced technologies related to medical heavy ion accelerators, the Ministry also announced plans to begin a partnership in radioisotope production technologies including accelerators and treatment system manufacturing. The Ministry expects further exchanges of joint research and information between the two countries in cutting-edge designs including sodium-cooled fast reactors and very high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.
China currently operates 26 nuclear power plants, and as per the country’s medium-to-long-term nuclear power development plan (2011–2020), China is rapidly expanding its nuclear infrastructure, with 24 units under construction and 44 on the drawing boards, while actively conducting R&D in related fields such as nuclear fuel and future technologies.
Over the past 15 years the joint committee provided the backdrop for a number of projects, including the establishment of the Korea-China Hydrogen Joint Research Center within the campus of Tsinghua University, China; joint workshops on nuclear thermal hydraulics—with the next workshop planned for October 2015 in Kunming, China; and research into cutting-edge future nuclear power systems.
