Status of national programmes on fast reactors and accelerator driven systems in Korea

The LMR (liquid metal cooled reactors) Design Technology Development Project was approved as a national long-term R and D program in 1992 by the Korea Atomic Energy Commission (KAEC). KAEC decided to develop and construct an LMR with the goal of developing an LMR that can serve as a long term power supplier with competitive economics and enhanced safety. Based upon the KAEC decision, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing KALIMER (Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor). According to the revised National Nuclear Energy Promotion Plan of June 1997, the basic design of KALIMER is to be completed by 2006 and feasibility of the construction is to be examined sometime during the mid 2010s. Phase 1 of three years of the LMR Design Technology Development Project was completed in March 2000 and a preliminary conceptual design report has been issued. The conceptual design of KALIMER will be finalized during Phase 2 of the project, which was started in April 2000 and will take two years. KAERI is also carrying out research and development on an accelerator driven system, called HYPER, for the transmutation of nuclear waste and energy production through the transmutation process. The HYPER program is being performed within the framework of the national mid- and long-term nuclear research plan. KAERI aims to develop a system concept and type of roadmap by the year 2001, and to complete conceptual design of the HYPER system by the year 2007. (author)