Negotiations going on between the two Koreas
Koreas meet in border village after tensions marked by nuclear threats Sam Kim,CTV News The Associated Press , June 9, 2013 SEOUL, South Korea — Government delegates from North and South Korea began preparatory talks Sunday at a “truce village” on their heavily armed border aimed at setting ground rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.
The meeting at Panmunjom, where the truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed, is the first of its kind on the Korean Peninsula in more than two years. Success will be judged on whether the delegates can pave the way for a summit between the ministers of each country’s department for cross-border affairs, which South Korea has proposed for Wednesday in Seoul. Such ministerial talks haven’t happened since 2007.
The intense media interest in what’s essentially a meeting of bureaucrats to iron out technical details is an indication of how bad ties between the Koreas have been……. If the Koreas can arrive at an agreement for ministerial talks, that meeting will likely focus on reopening the factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong that was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean co-operation, and on other scrapped rapprochement projects and reunions of families separated by the Korean War…..
The talks between the Koreas on Sunday could represent a change in North Korea’s approach, analysts said, or could simply be an effort to ease international demands that it end its development of nuclear weapons, a topic crucial to Washington but initially not a part of the envisioned inter-Korean meetings.
Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, has committed a drumbeat of acts that Washington, Seoul and others deem provocative since Kim Jong Un took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/koreas-meet-in-border-village-after-tensions-marked-by-nuclear-threats-1.1316934#ixzz2Vqp2UIeV
South Korean government sacks nuclear power bosses
South Korea’s top nuclear plant operator sacked Channel News Asia : 07 Jun 2013 South Korea on Thursday fired the head of the state-run company that oversees the country’s 23 nuclear reactors over a forged documentation scandal that has shut a host of those reactors down. SEOUL – South Korea on Thursday fired the head of the state-run company that oversees the country’s 23 nuclear reactors over a forged documentation scandal that has shut a host of those reactors down.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power president Kim Kyun-Seop was dismissed from his post for the scandal involving parts provided with fake safety certificates, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement.
It added that An Seung-Kyoo, CEO of KEPCO Engineering and Construction, which is responsible for nuclear power plant design and technology, would also be sacked at a board meeting on Friday.
The ministry had vowed stern punitive action against any senior officials of the two companies if they were found involved in the scandal.
The move came after President Park Geun-Hye demanded action over what she called “unpardonable” corruption in the nuclear power sector.
State prosecutors have launched an extensive probe into the case which forced the shutdown of two reactors on May 28 and delayed the scheduled start of operations at two more.
At proper capacity, South Korea’s nuclear reactors supply more than 35 percent of national electricity needs.
But 10 of 23 reactors are currently offline for various reasons, prompting government warnings of serious power shortages……http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/south-korea-s-top-nuclear-plant-operator/700446.html
USA – South Korea nuclear deal and the dangers of an Asian nuclear arms race
Obama’s Nuclear Vietnam National Review Online By Henry Sokolski June 4, 2013 “………..South Korea. The Obama administration has asked Congress to act in the next few weeks on a two-year extension of the existing U.S. nuclear-cooperative agreement with Seoul. The existing deal was supposed to be renegotiated so it could be extended for another 30-year period. Seoul, however, wanted Washington to allow it to make nuclear fuel from U.S. nuclear materials. This caused U.S. negotiators to balk. Publicly, U.S. officials worried that giving South Korea the go-ahead to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium would sink any prospect of getting North Korea to back off from doing so.
An additional concern, though, was more immediate and credible: Saying yes might lock down Japanese plans to finally open a large, uneconomical fuel-making plant capable of producing 1,000 to 2,000 nuclear bombs’ worth of “civilian” plutonium a year. If Japan should decide to open this plant, located in Rokkasho, it might easily give Beijing yet another reason to turn its own military preparations up an additional notch. It was for these reasons that U.S. negotiators asked South Korea to agree to a short, two-year extension to allow further negotiations to sort these matters out.
Reflecting these worries, congressional staffers from both parties added modest language to the administration’s draft U.S.–South Korea two-year nuclear-agreement-extension bill. The staffers’ amended language clarified the desirability of keeping nuclear-fuel-making at bay on the Korean peninsula and in Asia more generally. Administration officials, however, have privately made it clear that they want this language taken out.
This raises even more questions. Is the administration going to hold the line on Korean fuel-making? If so, how can it do this without doing the same with Vietnam? Or is the plan to cave in both cases? If so, how do we intend to deal with the nuclear-fuel-making aspirations of Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey?
One diplomatic answer is that we will handle these matters country by country (i.e., case by case). If Congress settles for this, though, it will have forgotten what it was trying to make the White House understand when it first complained about Secretary Clinton’s cutting a loose nuclear deal with Vietnam: That a “case by case” policy is no policy at all.http://www.nationalreview.com/article/350043/obamas-nuclear-vietnam-henry-sokolski
South Korea and USA planning nuclear pyroprocessing
Meanwhile, South Korea and the U.S. are set to sign a pact that will allow the two nations to step up their joint research on pyroprocessing technology, said a senior official at Seoul’s foreign ministry.
If adopted, the pact would enable the International Atomic Energy Agency to guarantee the safety of pyroprocessing technology.
South Korea seeking uranium enrichment, despite its previous pledges
Two-Decade-Old Pledge Complicates South Korean Nuclear Goals National Journal, By Elaine M. Grossman May 30, 2013 | South Korea’s designs on producing atomic fuel recently scotched a 2014 trade deal with the United States, but could yet have new ramifications: Potentially shattering a twenty-one-year-old pledge Seoul made to never process sensitive nuclear materials, according to issue experts.
“By dint of the Joint Declaration of 1992, South Korea has said it will not possess enrichment or reprocessing facilities on its peninsula,” Thomas Moore, deputy director of the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at a recent panel discussion. …………http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/two-decade-old-pledge-complicates-south-korean-nuclear-goals-20130530
South Korea Shuts 2 Reactors Over Faked Certificates http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/world/asia/south-korea-turns-off-nuclear-reactors.html?_r=0 By CHOE SANG-HUN May 28, 2013 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said on Tuesday that it was turning off two nuclear power reactors and delaying the scheduled start of operations at another two after its inspectors discovered that the reactors used components whose safety certificates had been fabricated.
South Korea’s nuclear power industry has been plagued by a series of forced shutdowns, corruption scandals and mechanical failures in recent years, undermining public confidence in atomic energy even as the country’s dependence on it for electricity is expected to grow. Continue reading
South Korea hopes to become a major exporter of nuclear plants….. It won a US$20.4-billion contract with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build four nuclear power plants there. Potential future export markets for South Korea include Saudi Arabia, India, Vietnam, Poland, and South Africa, as well as the U.S. and China…… http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/05/22/26/0301000000AEN20130522000200315F.HTML
Enormous solar rooftop system for Hyundai, South Korea
Hyundai To Install 40,000 Solar Panels On South Korean Plant http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3740 15 May 13, South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai, announced last week it will install the nation’s largest rooftop photovoltaic power plant at its manufacturing factory in Asan, Korea.
Hyundai says it plans to install 40,000 solar photovoltaic modules on the rooftops of Asan’s press, welding, assembly and engine buildings by the end of 2013.
In total, the panels will occupy just shy of 145,000 square meters (14.5 hectares) of the building’s massive 213,000 square metre rooftop area.
The 10MW rooftop solar power facility will generate approximately 11.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year; enough to supply the power needs of 3,200 households. At that generation level, 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be avoided annually.
The shading provided by the panels, plus the arrays’ sprinkler cooling systems will also help reduce the temperature in the plant below; offering some energy savings.
Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will purchase the electricity produced by the solar modules.
The type of panels to be used on the facility is unknown and while it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume Hyundai solar panels will be the choice; Hyundai Solar is a totally separate company run under different ownership – it is a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries.
Hyundai joins a growing list of automakers turning to solar energy for powering operations or providing an additional revenue stream.
While Hyundai’s Asan project is utility scale, commercial and manufacturing operations large and small can benefit from installing solar panels.
According to Australian commercial solar provider Energy Matters; which specialises in systems with a capacity of 20 kilowatts to 1 megawatt, if businesses are paying more than 20c/kWh for daytime electricity rates, a system sized to daytime load will provide a payback time of between 5 and 7 years – after which time, the electricity generated is essentially free.
Problems with USA – South Korea nuclear partnership
Washington, Seoul Seek To Extend Nuclear Partnership, VOA Scott Stearns April 26th, 2013 The United States and South Korea are major partners when it comes to the manufacture and sale of civilian nuclear power equipment. But that partnership, and maybe much more, could come under pressure if the two can’t come up with a broader agreement on licensing nuclear technology.
A big part of the problem, not surprisingly, is North Korea and its already advanced nuclear weapons program…….. http://blogs.voanews.com/state-department-news/2013/04/26/washington-seoul-seek-to-extend-nuclear-partnership/
No agreement between USA and South Korea on enriching uranium
South Korea and U.S. Fail to Reach Deal on Nuclear Energy, NYT, By CHOE SANG-HUN, April 24, 2013 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the Obama administration delayed the deadline for a deal that Seoul had hoped would allow it to begin making its own fuel for its civil nuclear energy program, but that the United States feared would undermine its attempts to curb nuclear proliferation. It had appeared that a deal might be reached this year, but officials in both countries said the deadline would slip until 2016.
The government of President Park Geun-hye has been pushing hard for the United States to lift a ban, part of a treaty signed in 1972, that prevents South Korea from enriching uranium and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
But the same technologies are also used to make material for nuclear weapons. American officials have said that lifting the ban would have complicated diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programs and to stop any attempt by Iran to develop atomic weapons….. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/asia/south-korea-and-us-fail-to-reach-nuclear-energy-deal.html
US nuclear-capable B-2 bombers in exercises with South Korea
US nuclear-capable bombers complete training mission in South Korea The Guardian, 28 March 2013 US military announces B-2 stealth bomber drills amid threats of nuclear strikes from North Korea The US has taken the unprecedented step of publicly announcing that two of its nuclear-capable B-2 bombers have taken part in military exercises with South Korea, dropping dummy munitions on an island range, in what is taken to be a show of force following weeks of North Korean hostility.
The announcement on Thursday is likely to further enrage Pyongyang, which has already issued a flood of ominous statements to highlight its displeasure at the exercises and at UN sanctions over its nuclear test last month. Continue reading
Conflict of interest, safety fears, in South Korea’s nuclear power plans
“The Republic of Korea is going to be the only country across the globe where regulators and basically developers or promoters might be working all together under the same roof,” said Suh Kune Yull, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University. “A conflict of interest is inevitable.”
Safety concerns cloud South Korea nuclear drive, Japan Times, AFP-JIJI FEB 28, 2013 GORI, SOUTH KOREA – South Korea has big plans to become a major nuclear energy player, but they are unfolding at a time when the global industry is under intense scrutiny after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.And its ambitions have not been helped by a series of domestic scandals and forced reactor shutdowns in 2012 that rattled public confidence and exposed a glaring lack of regulatory transparency.
Around $400 billion is riding on South Korea’s ability to sell its technology to potential clients as it aims to take on the United States, France and Russia and grab a 20 percent share of the nuclear energy market……
A survey commissioned by the Economics Ministry and published in November showed only 35 percent of South Koreans considered nuclear power to be safe — sharply down from 71 percent in January 2010. Continue reading
Park Geun-hye , South Korea’s new President’s challenge to negotiate with North korea
Park warned after the test that North Korea faces international isolation, economic difficulties and, eventually, a collapse if it continues to build its atomic program. She also pressed Pyongyang to respond to her overtures.
“We can’t achieve trust with only one side’s efforts. Isn’t there a saying that ‘We need both hands to make a clapping sound?”‘ she said.
South Korea’s 1st female president faces nuclear crisis CBC News, Park Geun-hye takes office Monday after election vow to soften approach to North Korea The Associated Press Feb 24, 2013 Even before she takes office Monday as South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye’s campaign vow to soften Seoul’s current hard-line approach to rival North Korea is being tested by Pyongyang’s recent underground nuclear detonation. Continue reading
Japanese government’s nuclear reprocessing plans likely to be colossal waste of money
But the continued operation of the Monju reactor is uncertain due to
frequent malfunctions. The Japanese government has admitted that it
may not be put into commercial use until 2050, prompting criticism
that the Rokashomura facility was a colossal waste of money.
Japan Could Reprocess Nuclear Fuel from Korea
http://www.energytribune.com/69930/japan-could-reprocess-nuclear-fuel-from-korea-2
January 07, 2013 From Chosun Ilbo The Japanese government is
considering reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods from Korea, Vietnam
and other Asian countries, the Tokyo Shimbun reported Sunday. Japan is
the only country in the world that has no nuclear weapons but the
facilities to reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods capable of producing
weapons-grade plutonium.
An advisory council to the Democratic Party of Japan in a report last
May said reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods would “strengthen”
Japan’s diplomacy, security and the country’s economy as well as
“contribute to the peaceful use of atomic energy.”
The report suggests using the Rokashomura nuclear reprocessing plant
in Aomori Prefecture, which will become obsolete if Japan scraps all
its own nuclear power plants in the 2030s. Continue reading
Business before safety, in nuclear South Korea
The country also hopes to
capitalize on its growing technological expertise, and it has already
exported four nuclear power plants to the United Arab Emirates.
Pursuing Economic Growth, South Korea Accepts The Risks Of Nuclear
Power Generation, International Business Tomes, 3 Jan 2013 It’s a new
year for nuclear energy in South Korea. The government has just
approved the reopening of a shuttered power plant in Yeonggwang
county, which will begin supplying electricity amid official
assurances that safety concerns have been addressed….. a sobering
caveat: Nuclear energy is inherently risky. …… especially
worrisome when South Korea shut down two of its own nuclear plants in
Yeonggwang — which is less than 200 miles from the capital city of
Seoul — in November, after it was revealed that some of the working
parts had quality certificates that had been forged. Continue reading
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- September 2026 (219)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (375)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 