The Agency needs to maintain a solid and reliable foundation for recruited inspectors by providing practical training at commercial nuclear power plants. The Comprehensive Inspection Exercise (CIE) is a basic training which consists of a simulation of a Design Information Verification (DIV) Visit, a Physical Inventory Verification (PIV) at a nuclear power plant, including Complementary Access. The basic curriculum includes a pre-course session, auditing exercises, fresh fuel (bundles and assemblies) measurements, spent fuel (bundles and assemblies) measurements, verification of design features, as well as nuclear material flow. ROK has been holding the lightwater reactor (LWR) / heavy-water reactor (CANDU) training course (CIE) from 2010 every year with about 2 weeks curriculum through MSSP (Member State Support Program). LWR and CANDU are operated by KHNP. To efficiently carry out the safeguards, IAEA receives the contribution through the ROK support program and implement R&D for the nuclear material inspection. ROK has been supporting and contributing total 22 tasks to IAEA in-cash and in-kind. Among them, this training provides for a course on safeguards verification activities at CANDU and LWR facilities. This course offers inspectors a unique opportunity to understand diversion scenarios and to familiarize themselves with instruments specifically used at CANDU and LWR facilities (OFPS and DCVD), as well as spent fuel dry storage transfer verification activities and dry storage dual sealing arrangements. KINAC performs PoC (Point of Contact) on behalf of NSSC and coordinates work between IAEA and KHNP. Additionally, KINAC first discusses with KHNP that can host light-water reactors and heavy-water reactors with KHNP at the beginning of each year. In order to hold a successful training, ROK plans and carries out a lot of process including agenda, accommodation, equipment movement, logistics and so on in consultation with the IAEA and facilities.
As temporary storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are becoming saturated, there is a growing interest in finding solutions for treating SNF, which is recognized as an urgent task. Although direct disposal is a common method for handling SNF, it results in the entire fuel assembly being classified as high-level waste, which increases the burden of disposal. Therefore, it is necessary to develop SNF treatment technologies that can minimize the disposal burden while improving long-term storage safety, and this requires continuous efforts from a national policy perspective. In this context, this study focused on reducing the volume of high-level waste from light water reactor fuel by separating uranium, which represents the majority of SNF. We confirmed the chlorination characteristics of uranium (U), rare earth (RE), and strontium (Sr) oxides with ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) in previous study. Therefore, we prepared U-RE-SrOx simulated fuel by pelletizing each elements which was sintered at high temperature. The sintered fuel was again powdered by heating under air environment. The powdered fuel was reacted with NH4Cl to selectively chlorinate the RE and Sr elements for the separation. We will share and discuss the detailed results of our study.