From April 26 through May 4, a group of U.S. graduate students studying nuclear material safeguards and nonproliferation joined early career professionals from several U.S. National Laboratories on a tour of nuclear fuel cycle facilities in South Korea. Organized by the Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives (NSSPI) at Texas A&M University and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the International Nuclear Facilities Experience (NFE) provided a unique opportunity for students and laboratory staff members to learn about facility operations and applied safeguards measures while exploring a foreign country. The INFE is sponsored by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of International Nuclear Safeguards.
This INFE was co-led by Dr. Claudio Gariazzo of ANL and NSSPI Faculty Fellow Dr. Farheen Naqvi. The group included ten students from Georgia Institute of Technology, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Texas A&M, University of Florida, and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU); faculty member Dr. Braden Goddard from VCU; and professionals from ANL, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), and NNSA Headquarters.
The participants began their visit to South Korea by touring the Demilitarized Zone, witnessing the standoff point of the conflict between the two Koreas. This experience allowed the group to fully comprehend the tumultuous relationship between the two nations and the reality of the nuclear threat faced by South Koreans. They then traveled to the city of Daejeon, where they first visited the KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Company’s fuel fabrication facility. Also in Daejeon, they toured the HANARO reactor, the SMART-ITL, and the PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration (PRIDE) facilities at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). They also participated in an academic exchange with students and faculty from the Nonproliferation Education and Research Center (NEREC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), hosted by Professor Man-Sung Yim. The group then toured Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant and the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency’s Low and Intermediate Level Waste Disposal Centre near Ulsan, concluding their trip at the Doosan Enerbility facility, which manufactures large-scale components for nuclear facilities.
SRNL staff member Samuel Uba remarked, “The NFE was a very exhilarating experience for me. Visiting the different nuclear facilities and seeing how safeguards are implemented in facilities operation was very educational.”
The trip gave participants the opportunity to see first-hand how facilities operate and the practical challenges of implementing international nuclear safeguards. They valued visiting these sites in the company of “a group of experts in the field” who could “see these sites together.”
According to VCU graduate student Peggy Milota, “I’ve been in the nuclear field for most of my adult life and have never been able to experience facilities or get big picture, hands-on, real work intricacies of the fuel cycle and safeguards the way that I was able to in this week. Despite being in my late 30s, I had multiple wide-eyed-wonder, kid-in-a-candy store moments that are going to be lifelong memories.”