CSCAP 

Nuclear Energy Experts' Group Workshop

on Nuclear Energy Transparency 
October 26-30, 1998 Albuquerque

In May 1998, members of the CSBM Working Group visited CMC, where they were exposed to a wide variety of existing nuclear energy-related transparency and cooperative measures employing the latest available technologies.  Of particular interest were examples of airborne radiation monitoring and other measures aimedat reassuring local communities of the safety and security of neighboring nuclear power installations.  This led to the suggestion by several Working Group members that a pilot program be undertaken, in conjunction with CMC specialists, to develop a generic nuclear energy monitoring scheme using currently available technologies that could then be presented to nuclear energy producers in the region for consideration, on a voluntary basis, as a trans-national confidence building measure.

The October 26-30, 1998 meeting was the first of two scheduled workshops to be conducted under the auspices of the CSCAP CSBM Working Group at the CMC.  Participants at this first meeting included nuclear power industry experts and security specialists from China, Japan, Canada, the United States, and Taiwan -- all current producers of nuclear energy.  (CSCAP-ROK and CSCAP-Russia were also invited to send nuclear energy specialists but were unable to participate in this session.)  In addition, nuclear specialists from Singapore and New Zealand added a broad regional perspective.

The meeting started with brief presentations by participants from China, Japan, Canada, the United States, and Taiwan on the irrespective nuclear energy production and research programs, with particular emphasis on any measures taken by power companies to reassure their neighbors as to the safety and security of their facilities, in order to identify precedents and norms for regulation, monitoring, and cooperation.  (South Korean and Russian systems were summarized from available information.)  The intent was to build upon these individual programs and, through a careful assessment of available technologies, develop a generic system that can be adopted, in whole or in part, by interested nuclear energy facilities on a strictly voluntary basis.

• A list of critical questions that illustrated regional concerns provided the framework for discussions.  These included:

• Is there radioactive contamination in my air?  Is it  indigenous or from somewhere else?

• Are civilian nuclear facilities (research and power reactors, processing, storage facilities, etc.) in other countries being operated safely?  Are my own operations perceived as safe by others?

• Is nuclear material transported across (or near) my territory safely and securely?

• Is spent fuel and other civilian fissile material stored safely, securely, and in a transparent, fully accountable manner?

• Is there a concern about possible diversion from my (or my neighbor's) civilian nuclear program to military uses (in country or via export elsewhere)

Workshop participants focused on the first two critical questions dealing with airborne radiation and facility safety issues respectively as being most suitable for a first generation monitoring exercise, recognizing that the technologies addressing those issues could satisfy some aspects of transportation and material security issues at the same time.  Long-term issues like spent fuel and waste disposition will also be addressed as logical extensions of the initial concept.  The level of data that is intended to be shared will be predominately suitable for wide distribution, with the caveat that distribution may be restricted during the start-up phase. 

At the conclusion of the workshop Sandia and Los Alamos engineers agreed to make a draft design for the generic nuclear energy monitoring system.  This system will draw from the outline or straw man prepared by the workshop participants and will include a basic and augmented package to provide a phased approach option where desired.  Regional attendees agreed both to discuss the findings of the group with their institutions and to research potential linkages with existing monitoring capabilities in the irrespective industries. 

The Nuclear Energy Experts' Group intends to reconvene during the last week of January, 1999 to finalize the system design and top lan a strategy for presenting the concept to regional industry and governmental authorities.  It is hoped that ROK and Russian specialists will join the group at that time.  A special advance preparation session will be held immediately prior to the second workshop for participants who were not at the first meeting.

The second workshop will be followed by visits to selected nations, institutes, industries, and organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region in early spring to present the Group's findings and promote acceptance of the generic model where desirable. Results will also be briefed at the June 1999 CSCAP Steering Committee meeting to provide broader exposure of the generic model to the academic and governmental security communities.

The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) convened its second Nuclear Energy Experts' Group Workshop at the Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 25-29, 1999 to examine potential nuclear energy-related transparency measures for East Asia.  The meeting was held under the auspices of the CSCAP International Working Group on Confidence and Security Building Measures (CSBMs), as a continuation of the Working Group's PACATOM policy-oriented discussions of regional mechanisms for nuclear energy-related multilateral cooperation. 

The Experts' Group is comprised of nuclear specialists and security analysts from all current Asia Pacific nuclear energy producers -- Canada, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Taiwan, and the United States -- along with nuclear specialists from Singapore and New Zealand, who add a broad regional perspective.  It first convened at CMC in October 1998 to investigate the feasibility of establishing a "generic nuclear transparency system" for the Asia Pacific region.  In that first meeting, the Group identified critical questions that a transparency system might address.  The participants determined that questions dealing with airborne radiation and with facility safety issues were most suitable for a first generation monitoring exercise, recognizing that the technologies addressing those issues could satisfy concerns about transportation and material security at the same time.  Participants believed that more sensitive long-term issues like spent fuel and waste disposition could eventually be addressed as well, as logical extensions of the initial concept. 

At the conclusion of the first Workshop, engineers from both the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories began work on a draft design for the generic nuclear energy monitoring system, drawing from the outline prepared by the Workshop participants.  An Asia Pacific Nuclear Transparency Web Site was designed to serve as the primary vehicle for system demonstration and user interface. The Web Site, as provisionally constructed, details the rationale for nuclear energy transparency, shows various information-sharing technologies, and guides the user to available data.  As a nuclear transparency device, the Web Site will contain basic information on regional nuclear energy production facilities along with currently available monitoring data.  To this would be added safety and radiation data from those facilities or industries that elected to test all or part of the proposed generic system. 

The second Workshop was aimed at examining and refining the generic system and prototype Web Site.  All but Canada were represented.  The Workshop began with a special review session for first time participants and continued with a review of ongoing indigenous nuclear energy production and transparency efforts, in order to incorporate and build upon these precedents.  The Group then focused its efforts on the proposed generic system and conducted a line-by-line examination of the proposed demonstration and user interface Web Site.  It was agreed that the Web Site would initially focus on current energy production facilities in Northeast Asia and North American but that it should ultimately be expanded to include nuclear research activities and other nuclear energy-related facilities region-wide, to include the South Pacific and Southeast Asian sub-regions.  All agreed that the Web Site should also include extensive links to related sites as an important design element and each Group member was tasked to identify appropriate existing indigenous web sites or home pages that would contribute to the Asia Pacific Nuclear Transparency Web Site's utility.

This prototype user interface Web Site walks the viewer through the various technical systems that can address environmental protection and operational safety concerns.  The measuring system for airborne radiation developed by Los Alamos National Labs, and currently operating in the western U.S. and Alaska, NEWNET, serves as a key approach to airborne radiation monitoring.  The possible use of existing measurement systems at  nuclear facilities also offers promise for straightforward development of environmental transparency.  Options for monitoring of facility safety were based on technologies developed at Sandia and Los Alamos for remote monitoring in support of the IAEA.  Significant savings were identified for a transparency system that did not have to meet safeguard requirements.  Many other options for fielding, maintaining, and sharing data are also examined during the Workshop, along with 
associated costs. 

Actual operational experience with remote monitoring in Japan, Australia, Argentina, and the U.S. was important in showing that costs, reliability, and maintenance were well understood.  Sandia engineers explained how the monitoring system for observing facility safety could utilize proven components in typical configurations.  Information handling over the Internet, at least in the experimental phase, could be serviced through the CMC web server to cut costs and take advantage of available systems and expertise.

Following the incorporation of the Group's recommendations and updates into the basic user interface Web Site, the next task will be for Group members to provide basic data on their respective indigenous nuclear energy production capabilities, along with as complete a picture as is readily and publicly available on the operations, performance, and domestic transparency efforts, if any, of at least one their respective, currently operational, nuclear energy production facilities.  CMC/Sandia specialists will cordinate the data and continue to update and maintain the Asia Pacific Nuclear Transparency Web Site as it grows.

Once the Web Site has been modified and refined, visits will be scheduled to selected nations, institutes, industries, and organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region in late spring and early summer to present the Group's findings and promote acceptance of the generic model where desirable.  Specialists from CMC, Sandia, and Los Alamos will join selected Group members in making the presentations, with Group members serving as the primary interlocutor with their respective agencies and industries.  Results will also be briefed at the next full meeting of the CSBM Working Group (tentatively scheduled for mid-May in Seoul) and at the May 30, 1999 CSCAP Steering Committee meeting to provide broader exposure of the generic model and overall transparency tool to the academic and governmental security communities.

Eleventh Meeting of the International Working Group on Confidence

and Security Building Measures 

May 25-27, 1999, Seoul, Korea

Summary of Discussions

The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) International Working Group (IWG) on Confidence and Security Building Measures (CSBMs) met for the eleventh time on 25-27 May, 1999 in the Republic of Korea. The meeting was hosted by CSCAP-ROK and chaired by CSBM Working Group Co-Chair Ralph Cossa (USCSCAP). The meeting brought together regular CSBM Working Group participants with members of the CSCAP Nuclear Energy Experts Group that, with the support of the U.S. DOE's Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been developing the CSCAP Asia Pacific Nuclear Energy Transparency Website.

Twelve CSCAP Member Committees were represented. All told, there were over 25 participants, including two scholars from Taiwan. Many participants had a strong background in the nuclear energy field and several were from national atomic energy organizations. All participated in their private capacities.

During this session, participants built upon the earlier efforts of both the overall CSBM Working Group and its Nuclear Energy Experts Group to identify, define, and promote regional CSBMs associated with the peaceful, safe, and transparent use of nuclear energy. Early arrivals joined several members of the Experts Group in a side visit with specialists from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in Taejon on 24 May. Dr. John Olsen from the CMC gave a presentation and demonstration of the prototype Nuclear Transparency Website and the group also received presentations on the activities of KAERI and the Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS). The meeting, in part, was aimed at obtaining additional basic information on ROK nuclear energy operations and environmental monitoring, in hopes that this could be incorporated into the Website.

The formal Working Group meeting was held in Seoul but also included a one day field trip to the Kori Nuclear Power Station near Ulsan, where members were given a complete tour of one of the ROK's nuclear reactors and also provided with presentations on the ROK nuclear energy program and the activities and operations of the Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). We also visited the KEPCO Nuclear Power Education Center and learned of KEPCO's efforts to share monitoring data with its domestic constituents. The CSBM Working Group is indebted to KEPCO for its generous hospitality and the spirit of openness and cooperation that added to our practical transparency program of on-site visits (we previously visited the Fukushima Power Station in Japan).

The Seoul meeting began with a review and demonstration of the prototype Asia-Pacific Nuclear Energy Transparency WebSite that is being developed by the Nuclear Energy Experts Group with CMC's assistance and support. The Website serves several purposes. In the section describing the CSCAP/CMC transparency experiment, it provides current and prospective nuclear energy producers with systems descriptions of the various transparency measures and technologies that are currently available to demonstrate their safe, secure operations.

The Website also contains basic information on selected existing nuclear energy production efforts. Today, it contains very preliminary data on the nuclear energy programs of Canada, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Taiwan, and the U.S., provided in large part by the respective members of the Nuclear Energy Experts Group. To this, we hope to add radiation and other safety monitoring data regularly collected by the respective plants and, in many instances, made available in some form to the general public. To the extent that any producers want to expand their transparency by applying technologies identified through the Experts Group's efforts, this too can be incorporated into the Website. The goal is to provide a vehicle for "one-stop shopping" for anyone interested in learning more both about transparency technologies and about nuclear energy production and related activities in the Asia Pacific region.

The Website also contains basic information about CSCAP and the CSBM Working Group and contains many of the Working Group's papers, meeting summaries, and publications relating to nuclear energy transparency. It also contains links to many related sites and hopes to be able to establish links to CSCAP member committees and the other CSCAP working groups as well.

During the Seoul meeting, participants from Canada, China, Japan, and Taiwan presented overviews of their respective nuclear energy programs and provided the Group with additional data, which in most instances can be integrated into the Website. We also received briefings on regional attitudes and intentions regarding the use of nuclear energy by participants from Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. As the Website expands to cover nuclear research operations and other prospective users, these presentations will help form the core of the initial inputs into their respective Website pages. We were particularly pleased to have participants, in their private capacities, from the China Atomic Energy Authority, the Cooperative Monitoring Center/Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, the Nuclear Energy Commission of Mongolia, and the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission. Their insights were particularly helpful in adding to the Group's overall awareness of nuclear energy programs and operations.

The Working Group also expanded upon its earlier effort to develop a generic Nuclear Energy White Paper. The draft outline initially prepared by the Nuclear Energy Experts Group was revised, reorganized, and expanded upon, based on presentations by two nuclear energy specialists, Professor Wen-Chen Chu of Taiwan's Tatung Institute of Technology and Dr. Kaoru Kikuyama from the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum. An effort will now be made to meld the two presentations, based on the feedback provided by the Group, in order to provide a working model of a general Nuclear Energy White Paper.

The meeting concluded with a wrap-up session where participants agreed to continue to pursue the development of the prototype Website, based upon inputs from the members. A special effort will be made to identify existing Websites and current monitoring efforts that can be incorporated into the CSCAP Website in order to make it a more useful informational transparency tool. The CMC also reiterated its earlier willingness to consider research proposals from CSCAP scholars who would be interested in obtaining a CMC fellowship in order to help develop a Nuclear Energy Handbook that would summarize all the multilateral organizations and proposals dealing with nuclear energy cooperation and transparency.

As part of the effort both to make regional energy producers aware of the Website and to obtain additional data to further develop the site, Ralph Cossa and John Olsen will be conducting private visits to Japan and Taiwan this summer to demonstrate the Website to interested organizations and institutions. A similar demonstration trip had been scheduled for China immediately prior to the CSBM Working Group meeting but was postponed. We hope to make similar visits to Canada and Russia in the future.

Meanwhile, the CSBM Working Group also plans to continue its efforts to promote greater nuclear energy transparency and hopes to conduct future visits to nuclear power facilities in the U.S. and China, among other locations. We will also convene the Nuclear Energy Experts Group as appropriate to concentrate on specific issues related to nuclear energy transparency and confidence building.

CSCAP members interested in reviewing the prototype Website may find it at 
http://cooper.cmc.sandia.gov/Nuc_Trans/  Since it is still in its formative stage and contains preliminary unrefined or unsubstantiated data, access to the site is still limited. Viewers will have to provide a user name (cscap) and password (nuctrans@cmc) in order to access the site. As soon as the members of the Nuclear Energy Experts Group are comfortable with the data on their respective sites, our intention is to make the site available to public at large.

Prepared by: Ralph Cossa, USCSCAP

Co-Chair, CSBM Working Group

CSCAP
Workshops

CSCAP Nuclear Energy Experts Group Workshop on Nuclear Energy Transparency 
.

October 26-30, 1998 Albuquerque, NM 

CSCAP Nuclear Energy Experts Group

.

Second Workshop II
on Nuclear Energy Transparency
.

January 25-29, 1999 Albuquerque, NM

Related Information

PACATOM

Pacific Atomic Energy Community