CHALLENGES FACED IN BI- OR MULTI-LATERAL INFORMATION SHARING FOR ENHANCING NUCLEAR TRANSPARENCY

The term “nuclear transparency” is becoming increasingly more popular among experts—both international and domestic—in the field of nuclear studies. Since the mid-1990s, several discussions have been held and efforts have been made to increase nuclear transparency. The biggest challenge, however, appears to be that the definition of this term varies from one expert to another, depending on the situation in which it is being used and the context of its usage. In accordance with these definitions, how methods to increase nuclear transparency are implemented will be entirely different—although information sharing is considered as a key tool to enhance it—and thus, experts often disagree. This paper describes the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute’s (KAERI) experience in this area, with a project titled “Enhancement of Nuclear Transparency,” which began in the mid-2000s and discussed the challenges and issues KAERI faced during the course of the project. Based on this experience, the author concludes with recommendations for a voluntary collaborative project between the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) that is currently underway that seeks to increase nuclear transparency in the Asia Pacific region.