KINAC began dispatching the resident inspector in 2012 to strengthen on-site Wolsong nuclear power plants (NPPs) regulations. The dispatched resident inspector is a member of the regional office of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) and is in charge of technical support, on-site regulation of safeguards, and physical protection for the Wolsong regional office of NSSC. As the number of nuclear facilities in the ROK increased, the resident inspectors began to be dispatched to other regional offices. The resident inspectors were assigned to Hanul in November 2015, Kori in March 2017, Hanbit in March 2015, Saeul in March 2022, and Wolsong in March 2023. Accordingly, this paper intends to reflect on the increasing role of resident inspectors and predict on-site regulatory work in the field of nuclear control. The role of the resident inspectors is described in detail in the internal regulations of KINAC. Among the tasks in the common field is technical support at regional offices for the most critical areas of nuclear control implementation, and on-site verification of the matters requested by the director of each implementation division shall be carried out. Tasks in the field of safeguards include an on-site check of facility regulation review, implementation of national inspections, technical support for IAEA inspections, and information management. Among them, technical support work for Unannounced inspections should be the top priority. These days, in particular, the importance of reviewing the results of checking advanced information and containment and surveillance equipment by facility operators is emerging. Among the tasks performed by the resident inspectors, more than 80% of the functions related to physical protection account for. The resident inspectors check the status of the physical protection system by weekly/monthly/quarter, implement physical protection regulation review and inspection, conduct exercise evaluation, and perform technical support for special assessments. Recently, regulatory activities related to radioactive terrorism and the emergence of illegal drones have been strengthened. In the field of cybersecurity, where its role has recently been increasing, the resident inspectors are performing basic field regulation tasks. Similar to the area of physical protection, the resident inspectors check the cybersecurity system for weekly, monthly, and quarterly readiness, and on-site inspections of cybersecurity review and inspection technical support, exercise evaluation, and other requests are mainly performed. The role of the resident inspectors is expected to expand further in the future due to the increase in terrorist risks at home and abroad and changes in the regulatory environment. However, there is a limit to performing an increasing number of tasks, with the human resources of the resident inspectors limited to one to two for each site. If the resident inspectors are dispatched for each field of safety measures, physical protection, and cybersecurity, they can perform their duties more efficiently, but problems may arise in the operation of our personnel. Therefore, the proper and precise allocation of work while maintaining the current system is an essential part. The roles and prospects of the resident inspectors analyzed in this paper can be used to deploy the headquarters and field regulation personnel and set the direction of work in the future.

• Chul Heo(Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC))