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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit, opens Working Group conference in India



2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit, opens Working Group conference in India
"Oppotunity at 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, plans to adopt common comunique of nuclear industry"


1. The Organizing Committee of Nuclear Industry Summit(chairman Kim Jong-shin) will hold the working group conference of 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit』 from 16th to 17th of January at New Delhi, India.
o This Working Group is operated since last November, to draw a Comunique to support 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit』 with participation of 31 organizations including nuclear companies and institutions, and also to discuss 3 topics such as "Connection of nuclear security and nuclear safety after the Fukushima Nuclear Accident".

※ Working Group(3 fields): Reduction of the use of Highly Enriched Uranium, Security of sensitive information of Nuclear Energy, and Connection of Nuclear security and safety after the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.


2. In this Working Group Conference, Korean organisations such as Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, France Areva, U.S. Westinghouse, U.K. Urenco and other foreign members of the Working Group will participate to evaluate the activities performed by the Working Group and to discuss the detailed program of 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit』.
o Also, they will participate at the Sherpa meeting of the Nuclear Security Summit to be held at New Delhi between 16th and 17th of January, to elucidate the current preparation state of 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit』 and the Comunique, to each representative.


3. 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit』 will adopt a Comunique in the oppotunity of 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit』 so that nuclear industry could itself set up a responsible and specific implementation plan based on the results of the 『2010 Nuclear Industry Conference』 held on last April at Wachington.
o This Comunique will hold a significant meaning since it will be drawn in the name of world's nuclear industry, that nuclear companies themselves understand the responsibility of nuclear security and safety, indicating the cooperation to the nuclear industry.


4. 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit』, which is an international conference with participation of 200 representatives including CEOs of world's nuclear industry and representatives of international organizations for nuclear, will open from 26th to 27th of March as the official event linked to 『2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit』
o It is expected that this summit will be the opportunity to improve the public awareness and restore the faith of nuclear energy as a safe and economical source of energy.
-the end-

Sherpa Meeting for 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will be held



Sherpa Meeting for 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will be held.

1. Sherpa Meeting to prepare 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will be held in New Delhi, India from January 16th to 17th.
* Representatives from more than fifty nations and international organizations invited to Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will be participating in this meeting.

2. They will discuss Seoul Communique and an overall agenda related with the preparation for the Summit during this meeting.

3. As a holding state of Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, we will actively discuss with all negotiating representatives to make actual progress in disussing outlines. Based in five basic principles necessary for making Seoul communique which was agreed in last year october, Helsinki Sherpa Meeting.

※Five basic principles :
①Nuclear security is the main theme of discussion
②Following Washington summit and keep the new progress
③State promise and participate with spontaneity
④Sublate forming of new regime
⑤Honor president Obama's vision of "4-year lockdown"

4. In this year's Sherpa Meeting is expected to be the major opportunity to make agreement about actual items before the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit. All nations' representatives will meet in Seoul, South Korea again to finally check the summit right before the Nuclear Security summit.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

[Letters] Toward successful 2012 Seoul Nuclear Summit

The biggest international meeting in the history of Korea is to be held in Seoul. The 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit is to be held for two days from March 26. 

Heads of states from 47 countries as well as the leaders of the four major international organizations, including the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, are expected to attend the meeting. It is a far bigger event in scale than the G20 summit held in 2010. 

The theme of the summit meeting is “nuclear security.” Since it may be an unfamiliar field that requires professional knowledge, appreciation and interest in the event is rather low among the citizens. 

However, many Koreans are interested in safety related to nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in Japan. The Fukushima incident was caused by a natural disaster whose devastating power was beyond measure. If terrorists struck a nuclear power plant, they could cause similarly catastrophic damage.

Nuclear security encompasses the overall technical and administrative measures to detect and respond to the terrorist activities against nuclear facilities as well as the use of nuclear explosives with sinister and lethal intention. 

The international community has assumed a nuclear terror attack as the worst case scenario and has been making various efforts to prevent such a disaster. Therefore, the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul will be a significant step in global efforts.

In fact, when U.S. President Barack Obama proposed the nuclear security summit in a speech in Prague in 2009 and the first summit was held in Washington in April of the following year, the discussion was focused on the possibility of nuclear terror attack using nuclear explosives and ways to prevent illegal circulation of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. 

In order to make the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit successful, the agenda should include issues not handled in Washington, such as the protection against radioactive materials and nuclear energy safety to prevent another disaster like the Fukushima incident in conjunction with nuclear security.

Though the North Korean nuclear issue may attract the interest of the general public, it does not correspond with the focus of the summit. Since there is an existing channel in the six-party talks, Korea should be careful when approaching the North Korean issue. 

Even more state heads are expected to attend the Seoul summit than the Washington meeting. While the government and related organizations are making various efforts to make the event a success, many citizens are still not aware that such a large-scale event is scheduled.

There are many positive aspects to the summit. If the G20 Summit has upgraded Korea’s standing on the economic playing field, the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will greatly enhance the status of the country in political and security fields. 

Moreover, if international confidence on Korea’s nuclear security and nuclear energy safety is elevated thanks to the meeting, it might boost Korea’s export of nuclear reactors. 

The 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit is a crucial opportunity to take a step up in the international community. Therefore, we need to make earnest efforts and lend our support to the event.

Non-proliferation nuclear security center, holds Korean·European expert conference '2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium'



In the Session 1("2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium preparation trend and agenda") was carried out with the participation of European civilian nuclear security experts such as International Institute for Strategic Studies(IISS) arms reduction and non-proliferation program director Mark Fitzpatrick, Head of Stockholm International Peace Research Institution(SIPRI) arms reduction and non-proliferation program Ian Anthony, King's College professor(Chief of Institute of Science and Security) Wyn Bowen, King's College professor Alan Heyes, research member Chris Hobbs, Lancashire University professor Laurance Williams, IISS researcher Jasper Pandza and Theo Milonopoulos.

Our delegation introduced "2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposim" preparation trend and main agenda in priority. Particularly, in the Symposium we have explained that 'Global Nuclear Security Governance' for the vision of nuclear security system will be discussed as a main agenda along with general nuclear security issues such as minimization of HEU usage, inducement to LEU transition, information security, nuclear detection and identification.

In response, Europe has accepted the concept of Global Governance as a resolution for nuclear security issues in the '2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium' which is held through civilian and governmental partnership. Europe has assessed that as a host country of 2012 Seoul Nuclear Securiy Summit, Korea has raised new subject to the global nuclear security expert community and by suggesting long-term vision, Korea has contributed to the maintenance of the momentum. The concept of Global Governance has been used frequently in G20 or climate change but since the concept is unfamiliar especially in the field fo nuclear science·technology which is deeply related to nuclear security, it has been pointed out that active research and out-reach activity on the concept should be required.  

In the Session 2("Main agenda related to the Nuclear Security") the discussions regarding △ Radioactive Security, △ Information Security, △ CoE(Center of Excellence) was held. First of all, to protect citizens from Nuclear Terrorists by securing radioactive security, there were opinions proposed that the response capability of three aspects such as, (1) identifying the cause of radioactive substance accidents, (2) sharing information domestically/internationally before and after accidents, (3) decontamination of radioactive substances after accidents, must be strengthened.

Secondly, various sensitive informations related to the Information Security exists such as security procedure of nuclear facilities and manufacturing methods of fissile material equipments. There were concerns that outflow and circulation of such informations would lead to the threat of nuclear terrorism, and they especially pointed out that the outflow of the information related to nuclear could be exposed unwittingly due to the dual use of the informations in universities and laboratories. In these concerns, there were opinions proposed that "a web of prevention" must be built to protect the sensitive informations related to the nuclear security, consisting development of the guidance of sensitive information and technology, enhancement of nuclear security culture, strengthening the international standards.

Finally, as the "housegift" at the 2010 Washington Nuclear Security Summit, 10 nations including South Korea, China, India, Brazil and Kazakhstan, promoted to establish CoE(Center of Excellence). There were proposals that the CoE could be utilised more effectively by adding functions such as △ capability concentration through expert networking, △ regional cooperation related to nuclear security, △ development of nuclear security program of 3s integrated perception, △ research of nuclear security policy, besides the function of education and training.

In the session 3("Cooperation about security and energy of nuclear between ROK and Europe") is that before Nuclear Security Summit in 2012, It was reached mainly cooperating economic field such FTA(Free Trade Agreement) between ROK and EU. By hosted Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul,  both sides agreed to need more systematic cooperation way in various field including securities which are nonproliferation, nuclear security, nuclear energy and so on

Though this meeting, Delegation from Korea perform successful outreach activities about 2012 Nuclear Security Symposium in Seoul to the indended private thinktank within Europe & academic experts and adopt global concept of governance. Futhermore, by raising a topic which is innovation of global nuclear security governance and leading discussion about nuclear security, they are estimated to arouse cooperation necessity of nuclear security and atomic field between ROK and Europe

Delegation from Korea that consists of Jeon bonggeun who is a head of Non-proliferation nuclear security center as leader of delegation, Lee dong hwi who is a Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security's professor, Kim changsik who is a  Embassy of England's counsellor, Kwon mi-yeon who is a second secretary at the Ministry of Foreign affairs and trade and Choi yoon hwa who is a researcher of Nonproliferation nuclear security center attended.

Kim Sung Hwan "We will invite North Korea to Seoul Nuclear Security Summit if they keep the promise"



In january 5th, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kim Sung Hwan said "If north korea follows the promise with international society about nuclear problem in 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, we might invite Kim Jong Un, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the Central Military Commission."

Mr. Kim answered the question at the regular briefing, whether he will invite Kim Jong Un to Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in march. He said "In last year, president Lee Myung-bak said that North Korea must follow the promise about nuclear problem made with international society if want to be invited in Seoul Nuclear Security Summit". Also he said "If North korea keeps the promise, we will invite them".

When asked whether he would recognize Kim Jong Un as a partner in South-North Korea negotation, he stated that he would meet with anyone who holds aporpriate position.

Then he added that Kim Jong Un's official positions are Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and said "we wil have to see how much power he can wield on areas other than miliatary with those two positions."

Mr. Kim's speech can be interpreted that we can acknowledge North Korea as a partner for South-North negotiation if Kim Jong Un is officially confirmed as the leader of North Korea.

When an Interviewer asked Mr. Kim "why do you think China treat North Korea carefully after Kim Jong Il's death?", he said that "North Korea's succession system has been almost established, but the North has not clearly announced which policy they will adopt" and "I think China is waiting for North Korea's stance announcement".

About the 3rd US-North Korea Summit, he spoke that "it depends on how North Korea will decide on the problem".

What is Seoul Nuclear Security Summit? - Official Promotion Video



This is a 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit promotion video.
It informs you about nuclear security summit, and let you know why it is so important.

===============
What is nuclear security?

Nuclear security is a series of preemptive measures introduced to prevent internal and/or external threats directly or indirectly related to nuclear materials, radioactive substances, relevant facilities or other associated activities. In the case of imminent threat, it consists of countermeasures to detect, delay and prevent illegal acts, as well as administrative and technical measures to minimize the damage caused by accidents.

Historic milestones in the evolution of the nuclear security issue

In the late 1960s, cross-border transfers of nuclear materials increased with the rising use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Nuclear security aimed to ensure the stability in the supply of nuclear fuel by preventing the illegal seizure of nuclear materials in transit.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, managing existing nuclear materials and facilities within the former Soviet territory emerged as a priority issue, with an emphasis on disarmament and on the protection of and the reduction in the number of nuclear materials and facilities.

Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the possibility of terrorists misusing nuclear materials and facilities became a real threat, and nuclear security was highlighted as a means to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism.

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Official Homepage

http://www.thenuclearsecuritysummit.org/eng_main/main.jsp
http://www.seoulnss.go.kr/nssmain/main.jsp

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Lena Park - Peace Song @ 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit - Official Theme Song



Lena Park (박정현) - Peace Song @ 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit - Official Theme Song

It doesn't matter who you are,
And no matter where you're from, we are
We all are one
With all our beating hearts, we strive, we struggle
So let all the dreams that move us
The hopes and the desires within us be common ground
And let it lead our way

Reach and we'll take the skies
There's no such thing as impossible
To keep our children laughing here and now, and forevermore
Reach and we'll see
and finally understand peace can be
Be this real place, this will be reality

Imagine every child is singing
Hear the sound of freedom in their steps
We can't forget
This beauty that we have to hold on to
Can't you feel it in the air?
Bright futures on bright wings of change
Oh let them lead us there

Peace Song

Reach and we'll take the skies
There's no such thing as impossible
To keep our children laughing here and now, and forevermore
Reach and we'll see
and finally understand peace can be
Be this real place, this will be reality

Bridge:
Changing the world as one
Hope makes a better place
Strength, and peace, and harmony
Closer and closer now
from dreams to reality
Not just for you, or just for me
But for the world?
But for the world, all the world

Reach and we'll take the skies
There's no such thing as impossible
To keep our children laughing here, now and forevermore
Reach and we'll see
and finally understand peace can be
Be this real place, this will be reality
Reach and we'll see
and finally understand peace can be
Be this real place, this will be reality
Be this real place, this will be reality

*Sung by honorary ambassador for the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, Lena Park (Park Jung-hyun)

Monday, January 2, 2012

Civilian nuclear power drives an international safety culture



Civilian nuclear power drives an international safety culture

Kim Byung-koo
Dec 27, 2011

Today marks an important milestone for the long-term energy security of the UAE. On December 27 two years ago, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the UAE President, and his Korean counterpart, President Lee Myung-bak, endorsed a joint nuclear power plant construction project that cleared the way for the first civilian nuclear energy programme in the Gulf.

In giving the green light to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the Korean consortium headed by the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the two countries also helped to stage the region's nuclear renaissance, a "nuclear spring" in the global energy scene.

Many Arab countries had talked about their nuclear power programme for decades, but the UAE was the first to make it a reality. So with two years of project implementation behind us, this is a good opportunity to examine how far the UAE and South Korea have come, and how much is left to do.

When a country embarks on introducing nuclear power into its national grid, it brings enormous techno-socioeconomic infrastructure changes on a national scale. My country's energy and economic example illustrates this point clearly.

Once a sleepy agriculture country 40 years ago, the Republic of Korea was transformed into an economic and high-tech dynamo in Asia, thanks partially to the introduction of its first nuclear power plant in the 1970s, followed by full-scale deployment of nuclear industries. What's more, the concept of quality assurance and a basic safety culture, once so foreign to Korea, is now commonplace. Nuclear expertise is now a top South Korean export.

We are witnessing a similar transformation about to take place in the UAE. Nuclear infrastructure construction is in full swing including the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Authority (FANR), the owner and operator of the nuclear plants (ENEC), and the critical national security efforts. The UAE government has taken measures to prepare for the introduction of nuclear power by accepting international nuclear governance regimes of the highest standards, addressing safety, security and non-proliferation concerns with the IAEA and other major nuclear countries like the United States, Korea and France.

These protocols were tested with the Fukushima accident of March 2011. Triggered by an earthquake and tsunami of an unprecedented scale, Japan's disaster has brought yet another test and wake-up call on the importance of nuclear safety worldwide. Every responsible nuclear country, and aspiring ones like the UAE, are re-examining the safety and security of its nuclear fleet well beyond basic accident scenarios.
The UAE selected the Korean consortium because of the safety of the technology. When all four units of the third generation reactor system, known as APR1400, are completed by 2020 at Braka in Al Gharbia region of Abu Dhabi, it will deliver about 25 per cent of the nation's electricity. The plant will also help to transform the UAE from an oil-based economy towards a knowledge-based high-tech economy depicted in its Vision 2030.
But the UAE has not settled for international mandated reviews. It also took the prudent - and voluntary - step of inviting the world's most distinguished nuclear experts to provide an independent review of the nation's overall nuclear programme. Since 2010 the International Advisory Board (IAB), composed of nine well-known world nuclear experts and headed by Dr Hans Blix, the former director general of the IAEA, has been issuing biannual review reports.

Views of the IAB are recognised to be authoritative and independent, and open for public review. They address critical issues in safety, security, non-proliferation, transparency and sustainability.

The IAB's recent visit to Braka in November focused on the site-specific safety issues since Fukushima. Other generic safety issues are being addressed by using the example of the Korean reference plant, Shin-Kori Units 3 and 4.

In response to the reviews, the operator will provide sufficient engineering solutions to relevant safety concerns before FANR issues the licence to start construction of the reactor building, the first significant milestone known as the "first concrete". What is encouraging is the fact that the UAE has initiated a review system involving the IAB to solicit independent opinions from world experts and, more importantly, make it publicly transparent.

There are remaining challenges, perhaps none greater than enhancing national capacity in technical manpower to be able to operate, maintain and regulate the nuclear power industry. The UAE is recognised as the frontier of nuclear power among the newcomer countries by fostering concepts of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation safeguards (known as "3S" standards).

One example is the Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute at Khalifa University to implement this challenge to integrate the 3S technologies and cultures through education and research. The second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in March will focus on the 3S integration at the highest level. The international nuclear community is responding to join the Emirati efforts to make nuclear power the most safe and reliable source of energy in the years to come.

Kim Byung-koo is a former director of technical cooperation at the IAEA and a visiting professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology in Daejeon, Republic of Korea

"Nuclear Industry Summit" Website opened


"Nuclear Industry Summit" Website opened

As an official and additional event of 「2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul」, the website of 「2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit」 which will be held from 23th(Fri) to 24th(Sat) of March has been opened.

In the website, there is various information about Nuclear Industry Summit including prime minister's speech,  event schedule, detailed programmes and so on.

Please visit.

Website address : www.seoulnis.org

ROK Embassy in Vietnam, VARANS co-sponsoring 2012 Soule Nuclear Security Summit Forum


ROK Embassy in Vietnam, VARANS co-sponsoring 2012 Soule Nuclear Security Summit Forum

ㅇ Negotiation representative of ROK, Han Chung-hi has attended "2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit Forum" at 12.27(Tue) hosted in Hanoi, Vietnam(Co-sponsored by ROK Embassy in Vietnam and VARANS)

ㅇ In this forum, Vietnam Ministy of Science and Technology vice-minister, VARANS deputy director, KINAC nuclear security center director, KINS authorities have attended to exchange and share opinions about restoring peoples' confidence for nuclear power plant since Fukushima accident has heightened the tension doubting nuclear power plant's safety measure.

ㅇ Negotiation representative of ROK, Han Chung-hi explained about background of holding Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, preparation status and agendas, future plans, and schedule of summit and events through special speech.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Security Center, search for cooperative nuclear security measures among Korean · Canadian experts

Nuclear Nonproliferation Security Center, search for cooperative nuclear security measures among Korean · Canadian experts


Session 1 ("2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit and Symposium preparation trend and agenda) was carried out with participation of many academic experts and Canadian government officials related to nuclear security including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs G8 Globla Partnership program director Shawn Barber, Nuclear Safety Commission Safety Management Director Raoul Awad, Nuclear cooperation · Comply and Nonproliferation · Arms Reduction deputy director Terry Wood, Senior Policy Adviser William Gusen. Our delegation mainly introduced 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium preparation trend.

Especially, we explained that besides the standard nuclear security issues, there will be a discussion on global nuclear security governance in order to propose vision for nuclear securiy system. In response, Canada, as the first head nation on global governance research, has expressed intention to collabrate and support the opening of the Symposium. Also, Canada has agreed on the necessity of governence structuring to continuously strengthen the nuclear security.

In Session 2 ("Search for cooperative measures including nuclear security · nuclear power among Korea · Canadian experts") Korea · Canada bilateral cooperative measures were dicussed in attendence of officials related with Korean penninsular region including the North East Asia Director Alain Gendron,  officials of the Policy Planning Bureau and Canadian ministry of foreign affairs including human rights · governance policy adviser Stephen Green, former Canadian UN ambassador Paul Heinbecker, the North-South Institute director Joseph K. Ingram, and civil experts related to global governance including G20.

They have agreed that both countries, with similar position in the international community, can contribute in the creation of global public goods by joint leadership. Especially, Korea's compound diplomacy and Canada's diplomacy as middle power, or effort of building global governance, share common goal and strategy, and it is required to secure the channel for bilateral meetings of experts. They also agreed that 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium, the event at 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, will be the practical example.

Through this conference, our representatives were evaluated that they have successfully performed outreach activity related to 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Symposium with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Council for Nuclear Safety, the experts of civil think tank of Canada; and have raised the need of cooperation of knowledge for KoreaㆍCanada's bilateral nuclear security sector, diplomacy as middle power and buding global governance. Our representatives consisted of 6 delegates who were Chun Bong-geun the director of Center for Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security as the leader, Lee Dong-hui the professor at Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Han Yong-sup the vice-president of National Defense University, Jung Young-soo the councilor of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to Canada, Kwon Mi-yeon the second secretary of the Office of Planning and Coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Choi Yoon-hwa the researcher at Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.