Signs point to S. Korea resuming R&D on processing spent nuclear fuel

A committee charged with the decision was launched in September, but the inclusion of a researcher with a history of researching pyroprocessing and sodium-cooled fast reactors has prompted questions about the neutrality of the committee

Spent nuclear fuel being stored and researched at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute’s High-Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor in Daejeon’s Yuseong District. (Yonhap News)

The review committee that will determine whether to resume a state-led research and development effort on spent nuclear fuel pyroprocessing and a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) includes among its members a researcher who has been involved in related research and development projects, it has been learned.

The state effort was previously halted last year after the South Korean government invested 800 billion won ($US675 million) in it. Observers are suggesting the inclusion of a researcher of questionable neutrality on the committee means the government intends to push for it to approve the project’s resumption.

In September, the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) launched a committee to review the suitability of the pyroprocessing and SFR R&D project, assigning it the task of weighing whether to resume the project or continue its suspension.

The suitability review committee included seven members from the previously existing pyroprocessing and SFR R&D reexamination committee, along with one expert each from the fields of nuclear energy and the economy.

With the stated goal of ensuring neutrality, the MSIT appointed experts from non-nuclear fields such as physics, chemistry, and machinery when it formed the R&D reexamination committee in 2017. This suggests a strong likelihood that the newly appointed nuclear energy expert could sway the committee’s decisions as its only member specialized in the field.

At the committee’s request, the MSIT did not disclose who the additional expert was. But the Hankyoreh learned from the National Assembly and associated experts that the newly added nuclear energy expert was Yun Jong-il, a professor of nuclear and quantum engineering at KAIST.

A search of ScienceON, a research information service of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KISTI), showed that Yun was the supervising researcher for a three-year project on the safe recycling of spent nuclear fuel launched in 2010 with the aim of “safely reusing recyclable resources in spent nuclear fuel through the introduction of pyrochemical dry processing technology and a sodium-cooled fast reactor.” A state R&D effort, the study included research into pyrochemical dry processing technology for spent nuclear fuel, designs for an SFR core and nuclear fuel assembly, and research on the SFR energy conversion cycle.

Yun was also a research supervisor for a state R&D effort launched in 2011 on “pyrochemical electrorefining and electrowinning,” in which the MSIT invested 100 million won annually over a three-year period. The study was conducted to provide the basic data needed for the assessment of spent nuclear fuel electrolysis technology performance — a key part of pyroprocessing — and evaluation of mass balance flow for the entire pyrochemical process.

At least five of the KISTI research information service’s 14 reports of state R&D projects in which Yun was involved were from pyroprocessing studies in which he was the lead researcher. The website of the KAIST Radiochemistry and Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory, which Yun heads, indicates that it was carrying out research projects related to pyroprocessing as recently as 2007, with support from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), which has been spearheading pyroprocessing research.

The MSIT maintains that it was unaware Yun had participated in pyroprocessing research.

“We weren’t able to check things like that out,” said Kwon Ki-seok, head of the ministry’s nuclear energy R&D division. “We asked the Korean Nuclear Society (KNS) for recommendations on experts who could determine suitability, not experts in pyroprocessing, and we received triple the number, after which we trusted the society’s recommendation in making the appointment.”

The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), which conducted review committee appointments on the MSIT’s behalf, explained that a review of Yun’s research history showed no issues.

Kang Bo-sun, who heads the foundation’s nuclear energy team, said, “There weren’t any cases of [pyroprocessing-related] government projects going to Professor Yun.”

If Kang’s explanation is accurate, the KRF’s scrutiny amounted to less than a simple online search.

Indeed, Yun himself acknowledged his involvement in pyroprocessing-related research, contradicting the explanations from the MSIT and KRF.

When questioned about his objectivity and neutrality, he admitted, “You could see it that way.”

“I myself thought it wasn’t a good idea for there to be a nuclear energy expert [on the committee], since that could be taken by others as meaning they could push opinions in a certain direction, but I was asked to do it because they needed someone with experience in and understanding of that research area,” he added.

Pyroprocessing technology involves the separation of nuclear materials from spent nuclear fuel, while a sodium-cooled fast reactor is designed to use sodium as a coolant when burning that nuclear material as fuel, rather than the water that is used as a coolant in ordinary reactors.

The South Korean government began pursuing related R&D in 1997, viewing pyroprocessing and SFRs as a means of safely processing nuclear waste in a way that reduces the volume and toxicity of high-level nuclear waste produced by power plants.

But quite a few analysts countered that the approaches lacked technological and economic feasibility and were impractical in light of the risk of nuclear proliferation. The project is currently suspended after the MSIT cut off support late last year at the recommendation of an R&D reexamination committee formed in 2017.

Kim Young-hee, an attorney who heads Haebaragi, an association of lawyers advocating for post-nuclear energy, said, “When the MSIT has a committee that is reviewing the suitability of continuing research on pyroprocessing and fast reactors, and it includes as a member a researcher who has done related research with government R&D support and may do more [research] if the government support resumes, that means that the ‘suitability’ review is nothing more than talk and the conclusion has already been made.”

“With its objectivity and fairness compromised, this committee has lost its legitimacy and is now nothing more than a stooge for the pursuit of pyroprocessing and SFR research,” she added.

By Kim Jeong-su, senior staff writer

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