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Korea Opens World's First Nuclear Safety School

The International Nuclear Safety School will train safety experts from around the world. A cooperation agreement between KINS and the IAEA was signed by KINS President Won Ky Shin and IAEA Deputy Director General Tomihiro Taniguchi. (Photo: Korea Nuclear International Cooperation Foundation)

An IAEA team has recently travelled to Korea to celebrate the opening of a center designed to advance the international education of nuclear safety experts. The International Nuclear Safety School is an initiative designed to promote nuclear safety learning and cooperation on a global and regional basis. The school is housed within the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), a government-funded technical expert organization that also acts as the country´s regulatory authority.

At the conclusion of the opening, a nuclear safety agreement of cooperation was signed between KINS and the IAEA, establishing the center as the IAEA´s regional training center in Asia.

"I congratulate the Korean government, the KINS staff, and Dr. Won Ky Shin on their establishment of this institute, the first in the world dedicated to nuclear safety and regulation," said Tomihiro Taniguchi, IAEA Deputy Director General, Head of Nuclear Safety and Security. "In order for nuclear energy and technology to be sustainable and to achieve continuous improvement, knowledge-sharing and networking are essential elements, and IAEA cooperation with Member States in the region has made significant efforts to promote nuclear safety knowledge at regional, national and global levels."

In addition to providing Korean participants with relevant and useful courseware, the school is seen as a prototype for pooling and sharing nuclear safety knowledge across the region. Equipped with state-of-the-art IT-based learning facilities, the school will host in-person lectures, training sessions and distance learning courses based on an organized curriculum. It will also support IAEA nuclear safety and security programmes.

The ceremony took place in Daejeon, Korea on 23 January 2008, and was attended by Korean Deputy Prime Minister Woo Sik Kim, KINS President Dr. Shin, and IAEA Deputy Director General Taniguchi. KINS was opened in 1990 and is led by Dr. Shin.

Background

Promoting safety among nuclear staff has long been a priority for the IAEA. In recent years, the Agency has advocated the creation of new methods to encourage technical cooperation and knowledge-sharing among Member States through the establishment of training centers, technical networks and distance learning courses. Recent examples geared towards Asia include the Asian Nuclear Safety Network (ANSN) and the Asian Network for Education in Nuclear Technology (ANENT). With Asia´s rising prominence in nuclear power, initiatives such as the Korean safety school are expected to grow in importance.

Korea is among the regional leaders in nuclear energy, with over thirty years of safe operational experience in nuclear power. The country has twenty power plants in operation with six more currently under construction.

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