The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entails independent decision-making for the safety supervision of civil nuclear facilities. To evaluate and review the safety of nuclear facilities, the national regulatory body usually consults independent institutions or external committees. Technical Support Organizations (TSOs) include national laboratories, research institutions, and consulting organizations. Support from professional organizations in other countries may also be required occasionally. Most of the world’s major nuclear power countries adopt an independent nuclear safety supervision model. Accordingly, China has continuously improved upon the construction of such a system by establishing the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) as the decision-making department for nuclear and radiation safety supervision, six regional safety supervision stations, the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center (NSC), a nuclear safety expert committee, and the National Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision Technology R&D Base, which serves as the test, verification, and R&D platform for providing consultation and technical support. An R&D system, however, remains to be formed. Future endeavors must focus on improving the technical support capacity of these systems. As an enhancement from institutional independence to capability independence is necessary for ensuring the independence of China’s nuclear safety regulatory institution, its regulatory capacity must be improved in the future.

Nuclear security event involving nuclear and other radioactive materials outside of regulatory control (MORC) has the potential to cause severe consequences for public health, the environment, the economy and society. Each state has a responsibility to develop national nuclear security measures including nuclear forensics to respond to such events. In Japan, national nuclear forensics capability building efforts mainly based on research and development (R&D) have been conducted since 2010, in accordance with national statement of Japan at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC. Most of that work is undertaken at the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) of the Japan Atmic Energy Agency (JAEA) in close cooperation with other competent authorities. The ISCN has made increased contributions to the enhancement of international nuclear security by establishing technical capabilities in nuclear forensics and sharing the achievements with the international community. The ISCN has mainly engaged in R&Ds for establishing and enhancing nuclear forensics technical capability. As for the laboratory capability, several new pieces of analytical equipment have been introduced for nuclear forensics R&D purposes. High-precise measurement techniques validated in the past nuclear forensics incidents have been established, and novel techniques that can contribute to the more timely and confident nuclear forensics signature analysis have been developed. The ISCN has been also developed a proto-type nuclear forensics library based on the data of nuclear materials possessed for past nuclear fuel cycle research in JAEA. These technical capability developments have been conducted based on the cooperation with international partners such as the U.S. Department of Energy and EC Joint Research Center, as well as participation in exercises organized by Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (NF-ITWG). Recent R&D works have been mainly based on the needs of domestic competent authorities, such as first responders and investigators, and aim to develop technologies covering the entire spectrum of nuclear forensics processes from crime scene investigation to laboratory analysis and interpretation. One important key issue is the enhancement of technical capability for post-dispersion nuclear forensics. For instance, the ISCN has carried out the development of radiation measurement equipment coupled with the low-cost and mobile radiation detectors that uses machine-learning algorithms for quick and autonomous radioisotope identification to support first responders during crime scene investigations. Laboratory measurement techniques for samples collected at a post-dispersion crime scene are also among the important technical issues studied at the ISCN. The application of emerging technologies to nuclear forensics has also been studied. This includes the application of deep leaning models to nuclear forensics signature interpretation that could provide more confident results, as well as the development of contamination imaging technology that could contribute to the analytical planning on the samples in collaboration with conventional forensics. Many analytical techniques have been developed and the capability to analyze nuclear and other radioactive materials for nuclear forensics purposes has been considerably matured over the past decade. The challenges of post-dispersion samples, collaboration with conventional forensics and the development of novel signatures will be more important in the near future. Therefore, the ISCN will promote the R&Ds to further enhance the technical capabilities solving these issues. In addition, the ISCN is also promoting to expand the nuclear forensics research into universities and other research institutes in Japan. This is expected to contribute to the establishment of a domestic nuclear forensics network that enables to respond timely and flexibly to the MORC incidents, and to the maturation of nuclear forensics as a new academic field.

아프리카 남단의 짐바브웨는 남한 면적의 4배의 드넓은 국토를 보유하고 비옥한 농토를 보유하여, 한때는 아프리카의 식량창고로 불리었으나, 농업정책의 실패로 이제는 식량 수입국가로 전락하여 농업의 부활이 절실한 나라이다. 2011년부터 시작된 KAFACI 국가별과제인 “콩 생산일관기계화 적용 및 실증” 과제를 추진하기 위하여 콩 예취기, 콩탈곡기 및 콩 정선기 등 한국의 소형 농기계를 현지에 투입하여 콩 수확작업에 대한 효과를 분석하였다. 콩 예취작업은 콩 예취기를 이용할 경우 작업시간이 12 시간/ha로서 인력작업시간 240시간/ha에 비해 20배정도 작업속도가 빠르고, 운전조작이 편리하여 여성도 손쉽게 작업할 수 있었다. 콩 탈곡작업은 틸곡기를 이용할 경우 14 시간/ha로 관행 인력으로 탈곡작업을 수행할 경우 소요되는 약 450 시 간/ha에 비해 30배 성능이 높게 나타났다. 경제성 분석력과 현지의 인건비가 매우 저렴하여 콩 예취작업의 경우 관행 인력작업의 비하여 콩 예취기를 이용하면 20%정도 비용이 상승되는 것으로 나타났다. 콩 탈곡의 경우는 작업성능이 인력의 30배 정도로 매우 우수하여 관행 인력작업에 비하여 콩 탈곡기를 이용할 경우 14%의 비용절감 효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 현재는 아프리카 국가 들이 경제적으로 열악하고 인력이 풍부하여 인건비가 저렴하여 농기계 수요가 낮지만, 농기계에 관심이 높았고 경제발전이 급속히 진행될 여지가 크므로 향후 식량기지화 및 농기계 수출 등을 고려한다면 아프리카 국가 특히 짐바브웨에 대한 지속적인 원조 및 투자가 필요 할 것으로 판단되었다.