SKorea gains nuclear reprocessing power
Date
11/25/2015 6:48:16 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) South Korea is set to take an important first step towards being able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel Wednesday enacting an upgraded deal with its military ally the United States.
Under their previous agreementthe South was forced to rely on imported nuclear fuelwithout being able to recycle it -- the storage of the depletedwaste promptingsafety concerns in a country where a third of the electricity demand is met by 24 nuclear reactors.
Having reached anew 20-year accord with the U.S. in April Seoul's foreign ministry announced that it would be brought into force later Wednesday during a ceremony with American Ambassador Mark Lippert.
Negotiations were highly sensitive for years because of Washington's push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula -- focusing particularly on the North.
While North Korea has largely ignored international calls to curtail its weapon ambitions the South could also point to the virtual nuclear power status afforded to Japan its neighbor to the east and another U.S. ally.
South Korea will now have the opportunity to develop technology known as pyroprocessing.
The next step according to Seoul will be talks with the U.S. startingJanuary to discuss further deals.
The South is looking to be able to carry out its own uranium enrichment allowing the nation to rely less on imports and boost outbound shipments -- but also giving itthe potential toexpandbeyond peaceful pyroprocessing towards nuclear weapon production.
By Alex Jensen
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