- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute shares recycling technology at international workshop

Researchers conduct tests at PRIDE, the pyroprocessing integrated inactive demonstration facility at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]
Researchers conduct tests at PRIDE, the pyroprocessing integrated inactive demonstration facility at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]

An international forum on recycling spent nuclear fuel and reducing radioactive waste is being held in South Korea this week.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute announced it is hosting the Workshop on Recycling for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles — organized by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and co-hosted by the institute and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power — at its headquarters in Daejeon from Wednesday through Friday.

About 110 experts from government agencies, research institutions and industry in OECD/NEA member states — including the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Belgium — are attending, along with officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

As countries around the world move to expand nuclear power generation, the management of spent nuclear fuel has emerged as a pressing challenge. Spent fuel still contains materials that can be reused, but securing both safety and economic viability remains difficult given the high radioactivity involved and the complexity of the treatment process.

Interest in recycling technologies — rather than simply storing or disposing of spent fuel — has grown further as development of small modular reactors and next-generation reactors has accelerated.

Recycling spent nuclear fuel can improve the utilization of fuel resources and, when combined with advanced reactors such as fast reactors, help reduce the volume, heat output and long-term radioactive toxicity of high-level radioactive waste that must ultimately be disposed of.

The workshop covers the full cycle, from "reprocessing" — separating and recovering reusable materials from spent fuel — to "recycling," which involves fabricating those materials into new nuclear fuel for use in reactors.

Participants pose for a group photo at the opening of the Workshop on Recycling for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles on Wednesday. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]
Participants pose for a group photo at the opening of the Workshop on Recycling for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles on Wednesday. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]

The three-day event features five sessions covering the state of technology development in key countries, regulatory and economic challenges, and avenues for international cooperation.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute will present its research findings on pyroprocessing — a dry recycling technology that treats spent nuclear fuel in high-temperature molten salt — along with its future development roadmap.

French nuclear company Orano will present updates on the expansion of its mixed oxide fuel fabrication facilities for spent fuel recycling. Idaho National Laboratory in the United States will share the technical challenges involved in moving from demonstration to real-world application of recycling technologies.

Next-generation reactor developers — including GE-Hitachi, Moltex Energy Canada and Nucleor — will also outline the potential uses of recycled nuclear fuel and their technology development directions.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has been researching pyroprocessing since 1997. It has built PRIDE, a pyroprocessing integrated inactive demonstration facility that uses simulated materials in place of actual spent fuel, and conducts radioactive waste disposal research through its underground research tunnel, KURT.

On the final day of the event Friday, overseas experts will visit PRIDE and KURT, as well as Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's small modular reactor simulator center, to observe the state of domestic fuel recycling and disposal technologies and next-generation reactor research.

"To ensure the sustainability of the nuclear industry, we must consider spent fuel recycling and disposal together," said Vice President Choi Ki-yong of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. "We hope this workshop will serve as a catalyst for concrete international cooperation."


nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com