CHALLENGES FOR THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR COMMUNITY Up to now, the global nuclear community has exerted every effort to

make nuclear power safe, economical and environmentally friendly. To realize a new renaissance of nuclear power, however, more than ever expertise and resources from the global nuclear community should be concentrated on appropriately responding to the following challenges.

3.1. Improvement of the international network to ensure operational safety The first challenge is to ensure the safety of operations at nuclear facilities. In spite of the numerous activities to maintain or upgrade the safety of the nuclear power plants currently in operation, unfortunate events have still occurred which have threatened the safety of nuclear technology. Some events which have recently occurred are severe corrosion of the reactor vessel head at Davis Besse, inappropriate data handling at Tokyo Electric Power Company and severe fuel damages at Paks.

Meanwhile, the experience gained from these events offers a very important lesson to other utilities, and their access to detailed information on these lapses will help prevent a recurrence of such events. Of course, there are several international organizations such as the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) to share operating experiences and information. However, these systems have some limitations in that it takes much time for any information to be transferred from the providing utility to others, and important information can be omitted because reporting is not mandated. These problems, to my mind, result partly from the language barrier which accompanies the translation of one’s mother tongue into English.

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Thus, for these systems to be more effective, it must be required that all utilities joining the network be obliged to provide important information based on the appropriate criteria, which should be established, and the language problem be appropriately handled in order to facilitate more rapid communi-cation among the utilities. In my view, the IAEA or WANO should play a leading role in meeting this need.

3.2. Consistent and clear global standards for radioactive waste disposal The second challenge is to develop a clear and consistent global strategy for the disposal of spent fuel, including high level radioactive waste. Recently, how to dispose of spent fuel has become a common dilemma for most countries, and is one of the most essential factors standing in the way of full public acceptance.

For example, while we as experts can state with all certainty and sincerity that a disposal site is geologically safe, technically feasible and environmentally reasonable, public scepticism still increases.

Accordingly, to minimize prolonged painful but fruitless arguments on this issue, and thus to gain more confidence from the public, above all, clear global standards and technology advancements for radioactive waste disposal should be provided through international research and cooperative activities.

During such a process, it is desirable for the IAEA to take the lead.

Additionally, as a means to support any country that has difficulties in individually resolving the disposal issue alone, securing an international disposal site or facility for common use among the Member States of the global nuclear community would be advantageous from all standpoints.

3.3. Global information network for promoting public perception of nuclear power

A third challenge involves improving the public’s perception of nuclear power. Recently, special interest groups, including non-governmental organiza-tions, have had a great influence on nuclear policy making in each country, and this trend seems likely to prevail worldwide.

Thus, I suggest that an information system on public acceptance be created, in which every country’s experiences are integrated in order to better form strategies to combat these nuclear naysayers. It will also be necessary to conduct international discussion forums to come up with improved public acceptance strategies, such as strengthening the availability of Internet based resources.

In many cases, incorrect and biased information fabricated and distributed by some anti-nuclear groups has made it more difficult to gain

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3.4. Training of nuclear experts for the future

The fourth challenge is to consistently preserve nuclear expertise. This is essential not only for the safe operation of nuclear plants, but also to relieve many headaches in the future regarding waste disposal, plant life extension and development of new plants. In order for us to be successful in this regard, qualified personnel must be maintained, and thus investment in training for the younger generation is of paramount importance.

In recent years, many countries with nuclear programmes have seen a decrease in the number of new graduates related to nuclear fields. To overcome this trend, more efforts to attract young people have to be made at the level of international cooperation, as well as in each individual country. In this regard, I thank the IAEA for motivating young people to get excited about careers in the nuclear field with such supports as for the biennial International Youth Nuclear Congress.

3.5. Need for taking the lead and stronger global cooperation for implementing new nuclear projects

A final challenge is how to boost construction of new nuclear plants in the foreseeable future. If we do not make use of the current environment to actively pursue the building of new nuclear plants, while the big spike in oil prices persists, a new nuclear renaissance will never be realized.

Although several new advanced reactors have already been developed and are ready to be marketed, most developed countries are reluctant to implement new nuclear projects. This, in my view, can be attributed to their lack of confidence in nuclear energy’s economic competitiveness, as well as internal problems in each country.

Fortunately, however, these types of worries have been mitigated to a certain degree by three countries: Finland, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

All three are now going forward to build the first ALWRs, namely the EPR (Olkiluoto 3), APWR (Tsuruga 3 and 4) and APR1400 (Shin-Kori 3 and 4), respectively. The three projects are all currently under way, with a goal of beginning commercial operations around 2010. Moreover, recently, the AP-1000, a passive ALWR, has received Final Design Approval (FDA) from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I am confident that these leading efforts will be a cornerstone for the revitalization of nuclear power.

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Based on this fact, developed countries are highly recommended to take the initiative in deploying advanced plants.

On the other hand, nuclear power is considered by some developing countries to be a preferred energy option for meeting their sharply increasing energy needs. However, to deploy nuclear power plants in such areas, some prerequisites must be satisfied. First of all, every country has to establish a solid infrastructure and maintain a certain level of technology to ensure the safe operation of nuclear power plants. The other critical issue is how to secure such a large amount of capital for the construction of nuclear facilities.

To fulfil these requirements, a large package of assistance from developed countries should be provided, such as transfers of technology and experience for operations and regulations, and the training of qualified personnel. From a financial standpoint, constitution of international consortia or a new interna-tional fund must sincerely be considered.

4. THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA’S ROLE IN THE CHANGING