Current State and Plans of R&D in ROK on Safeguards for Pyroprocessing Facility

South Korea has been developing pyroprocessing technology that recovers valuable resources such as uranium from the spent fuels of nuclear power plants. Unlike reprocessing technology, which enables the separation of plutonium, pyroprocessing recovers neptunium, americium, curium and plutonium together. This aspect makes pyroprocessing a promising nonproliferation nuclear fuel cycle as well as a challenging in safeguards aspects. Incorporating the Safeguards-by-Design concept early in the conceptual design phase of the nuclear facility is also important for establishing an effective and efficient safeguards implementation. That also may reveal synergy components to potentially reduce safety and/or security risks, as well as improve major plant design characteristics including operational efficiency and minimize the life cycle cost. In this context, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed safeguards technologies, to overcome safeguards challenges and to enhance proliferation resistance aspects of advanced nuclear fuel cycles, in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States. The advanced safeguards system, including nuclear material-accounting technologies and new safeguards approaches for pyroprocessing, has been under development at KAERI. This paper addresses the main features of the safeguards development status and the future prospects of the pyroprocessing facilities. It is expected that deployment of these advanced safeguards technologies well be useful for a pyroprocessing facility. This paper first reviews previous R&D conducted on safeguards for pyroprocessing and then describes recent activities including future plans in domestic as well as collaborative work with the IAEA and US.