Potential Effects of a Lapse in the US-Korea 123 Agreement December 13, 2012 The current US-ROK 123 Agreement for Cooperation on Civil Uses of Atomic Energy entered into force in 1973, and after having been active for nearly forty years, is set to expire in March 2014. To avoid a lapse, it is believed that

Nuclear Fuel Supply—Process, Status, and Outlook November 07, 2012 While the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle has been the focus of considerable political attention and controversy, the front-end also presents its own unique challenges and complex issues. Fuel production for commercial nuclear plants consists of four basic steps: uranium mining for yellowcake, conversion of

New Thinking on Nuclear Governance: US and ROK Future Directions October 11, 2012 The current deadlock between the US and South Korea over renegotiation of their 123 Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement lies in the thorny subject of enrichment and reprocessing (E&R)—while it is US policy to discourage transfer of E&R technologies to countries without established

Waste Confidence: What Next for the US? September 12, 2012 In response to a 1977 NRDC lawsuit challenging the basis of licensing reactors, the NRC issued the original Waste Confidence Rule in 1984, essentially expressing assurance that safe disposal of spent fuel in a geologic repository was technically feasible and that repository space would eventually

Future of Nuclear Power and Renewable Energy in the US August 29, 2012 There is widespread recognition that the current pace of fossil fuel usage will necessarily lead to climate change and other deleterious global effects. Within the US, market forces have decreased carbon emissions to record levels with the emergence of cheap shale natural

The Problem of Public Acceptance for the Global Nuclear Industry August 09, 2012 The need to engage and educate the public about nuclear energy and its associated benefits and risks has always been a vital task for the nuclear industry, and is even more so now following the Fukushima accident. Throughout the world, public concern

Computer Modeling of Radioactivity Releases in a Nuclear Accident: Lessons and Implications July 12, 2012 Computer modeling is utilized to evaluate the risks of radiation releases from nuclear plants in various ways: estimating the general probability and consequences of severe nuclear accidents by factoring in a wide spectrum of technical, historical, geographical, and environmental data;

Closing the Fuel Cycle in Asia: The Security Implications June 06, 2012 While the merits of closing the nuclear fuel cycle are normally debated in technical and economic terms, security issues are often set aside as secondary concerns in such discussions. South Korea, Japan, and China have long expressed interest in developing nuclear reprocessing, and

Nuclear Energy in Korea: US-ROK Fuel Cycle R&D Cooperation May 10, 2012 With few viable energy alternatives, South Korea relies on nuclear power to meet its growing energy demands and limit its greenhouse gas emissions. However, Korea faces significant challenges in the management of spent nuclear fuel, stemming from geographical issues and episodes of vociferous

Solutions to Spent Nuclear Fuel Management April 13, 2012 While the US government has been obligated to collect and permanently dispose of commercial nuclear waste from American reactor sites under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, it has yet to take possession of even an atom of this waste. Although the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s