ABSTRACT
South Korea joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1957. The Framework Act No. 483 on Atomic Energy, the country’s principal nuclear energy legislation, was passed in March of the following year (IAEA updated 2012). A small research reactor, the KRR-1 located in Seoul, went critical in 1962 and the regulation of radioactive sources began with the issuance of the first two licenses a year later. A second research reactor, KRR-2 also located in Seoul, went critical in 1972. In 1976, Colorado State University donated a critical assembly to Kyeong-Hee University (Ha, Lim, Oh and Wu 2011, p. 2). 2 The High-Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO), located in Daecheon, went critical in 1995, replacing KRR-1 and KRR-2 that were both shutdown the same year (“High-Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor” 2010). A postirradiation examination facility, irradiated material examination facility, radioisotope production facility, fuel fabrication facility and other laboratories operate in conjunction with the reactors and critical assembly (Oak Ridge National Laboratory 2010, p. 11). While the infrastructure was and is used for basic science and to produce radioisotopes used in diagnostic medicine and in industries such as mining, its primary purpose has always been to develop the expertise required for an advanced indigenous nuclear industry, both in terms of power production and as a technology exporter. Being energy resource poor, and having experienced two “disastrous” oil crises during the 1970s, South Korea considers nuclear power its most reliable source of base load power (Ko and Kwon 2009, p. 3484).
