South Korea Plans Advanced Reactor to Burn Spent Nuclear Fuel

摘要

Like the United States, South Korea has a growing, burdensome stockpile of spent nuclear fuel. But Korea plans to do something about it, using technology that has been gathering dust in the U.S. to build a reactor that will recycle spent fuel to produce more electricity and less noxious waste. To build the Generation Ⅳ sodium-fast reactor, South Korea has partnered with Argonne National Laboratory, whose scientists have been advocating the technology since the 1940s. "In the U.S.A. you have good experience for metal-fuel sodium fast reactors, but you don't have any plan for design and construction of SFRs," said Younggyun Kim, director of South Korea's Sodium Fast Reactor Development Agency, in an appearance at the University of Chicago.