EXPERIENCE OF KOREA-IAEA ENHANCED COOPERATION ON SAFEGUARDS IMPLEMENTATION AT LWRS

According to Korean Atomic Energy Act, national inspection is being performed independently at the same time as the IAEA inspection. As national inspection system settled down, both Korea and the IAEA were looking for possible ways of cooperation for more efficient and effective safeguards implementation. As a first step, enhanced cooperation on LWRs, based on remote monitoring technology and State’s system utilization, was introduced and an MOU for implementation was signed between Korea and IAEA in October 2001. Under the MOU, the new scheme is being implemented successfully for all LWRs in Korea from January 2002. Basic elements of the scheme are the maintaining of independent conclusion capabilities of each party and sharing of inspection activities between both parties. To ensure that IAEA is able to draw timely independent conclusion, a remote data transmission scheme with digital C/S (containment and surveillance) system is adopted. IAEA participate in the annual PIV/Post-PIV inspections and other randomly selected inspections as deemed necessary while ROK SSAC performs all scheduled inspections for LWRs. It is expected that the IAEA's on-site inspection would be significantly reduced with this new scheme. During 2003, 97 times of inspection were performed at 15 LWRs. Among those, 57 times of inspection were subject to random selection of the IAEA and IAEA inspector participated 17 times of inspection. It means that the IAEA saved 40 times of inspections for LWRs. Inspection activities performed alone by ROK SSAC have been documented in a manner consistent with IAEA’s Inspection Logsheet with completed working papers. Korea sent inspection reports to the IAEA through encrypted e-mail transfer system within 15 calendar days after inspections. With this new scheme, the effectiveness is increased while the efficiency also improves. For successful implementation of enhanced cooperation scheme, more close communication is essential. This new approach is expected to have positive effects on the future enhanced cooperation such as CANDU reactors and other areas.