(EDITORIAL from the JoongAng Daily on Jan. 5)

Time for a new nuclear era

South Korea is poised to demand revision of an atomic energy agreement with the
United States, after having won from the United Arab Emirates a
multibillion-dollar contract to build third-generation nuclear reactors in the
Middle East.

In a recent meeting with lawmakers, Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung-hwan
said that the decades-old atomic energy agreement with the U.S. puts ???excessive
restraints??? on nuclear material and reprocessing areas.
Last July, some politicians called for an end to the nuclear cycle through the
reprocessing of spent fuel for peaceful and economic purposes; others demanded
more nuclear freedom to counter North Korea???s nuclear weapons program.
The South Korea-U.S. atomic energy agreement signed in the 1970s expires in 2014.
From an economic and environmental perspective, the agreement should be
rewritten. By 2016, the country???s 20 nuclear reactors will have reached their
maximum storage capacity. Local scientists have already developed the technology
for pyroprocessing, a safe method of separating spent nuclear material by
electrolytic means, and are waiting to test it. If they succeed, it will be
possible to extract more energy through recycling.
The new technology will allow nuclear waste to be reprocessed and would reduce
the amount of spent nuclear fuel by less than one-twentieth from current levels.
At the same time, it minimizes the supply of plutonium that can be used as
nuclear weapons fuel. It can also help save the expense and risk of operating
nuclear power plants while dispelling the suspicion that our nuclear ambition
extends any farther than the desire for electrical power.
But the current energy agreement with the U.S. hampers the application of the new
technology. The government must strive harder to revise the agreement by building
a better case for its revision. However, we disagree with politicians who are
extending the issue to the nation???s nuclear sovereignty. Such comments can
injure our international status and threaten the safety of our country. We cannot
isolate ourselves and turn the world against us like North Korea has done. Their
comments also undermine the work our scientists have done to develop nuclear
energy for economic purposes.
(END)