South Korea and its U.S. ally have almost reached an agreement on further exchanges in nuclear power technology, bringing them a step closer toward revising the bilateral nuclear accord that is set to expire in 2014.

The technology sharing also involves joint research on pyroprocessing, a method of reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear reactors.

Both sides have concluded talks and are going through an internal process for documentation, a process that will take about a month, a South Korean government source told the local media.

This latest development is likely to push both sides to move forward in their nuclear talks in which South Korea has been engaging the U.S. to re-negotiate the terms of the bilateral agreement since 2010, allowing the former to reprocess spent fuel.

However, the U.S. has been reluctant for South Korea to reprocess used fuel originating from the U.S., seeing it as nuclear proliferation risk for the region due to North Korea. Japan, also a close U.S. ally, is exempt from the U.S. reprocessing ban.

Also, U.S. opposition was forged when South Korea in the past expressed its intent to gain nuclear weapons capability through reprocessing, particularly in the 1970s during Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian rule. Park approached France for talks on reprocessing collaboration. France and Britain are the only countries that have commercial reprocessing technology.

The father of President-elect Park Geun-hye began to construct and expand nuclear power facilities based on the nuclear pact with the U.S., which supplied technology and fuel to its partner.

The re-negotiations come as South Korea faces limited resources in storing nuclear waste and seeks to boost the export of nuclear power technology, while gaining full autonomy nuclear power and fuel recycling for peaceful and civil purposes.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)









President-elect Park and U.S. President Obama’s administrations are expected to further negotiate over the possible revision of the bilateral accord beginning in March 2013. The two sides have to reach a conclusion by late 2013.

By Park Hyong-ki and news reports
(hkp@heraldcorp.com)