The United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Republic of Korea Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), under the International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (I-NERI) Agreement signed on May 16, 2001, agreed, on October 27, 2006, to collaborate on six new projects totaling approximately $14.8 million over three years.
This new collaboration will increase the total number of projects funded by DOE and MOST under the I-NERI agreement to twenty-seven. Currently five of these projects initiated in January 2002 and six initiated in January 2003 have been successfully completed.
The six new advanced nuclear reactor technology projects will be performed by joint teams of U.S./Korean researchers in the following areas:
- Very-High-Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Concepts;
- Transmutation;
- Pyroprocessing;
- Crosscutting Materials; and
- Sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) development.
DOE is implementing the VHTR concept through the Next Generation Nuclear Plant program in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Information regarding the I-NERI projects will be posted on the I-NERI web site.
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