Nuclear experts from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Taiwan, and the United States attended the Seoul meeting.  Previous meetings occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Cooperative Monitoring Center (October 1998 and January 1999) and in Seoul, Korea (May 1999), the latter in conjunction with a full CSBM Working Group meeting.  CSCAP-Canada, CSCAP-Singapore, and CSCAP-New Zealand are also regular members of the Expert's Group but did not attend this meeting since it was aimed primarily at updating and validating existing web pages.  The Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) continues to be a key partner in this process, providing both technical expertise and hardware, software, and financial support.  We are also grateful to CSCAP-ROK for their assistance in arranging this meeting and the May 1999 session (which also included a visit to an ROK nuclear power station).

Following previously established procedures, the February 2000 Seoul Workshop began with update presentations from the participants on their respective nuclear energy programs.  Participants were asked to focus on domestic information programs and to identify publicly available web sites and sources of environmental monitoring data that could be linked to the CSCAP Web Site.  All the presentations provided useful insights into the role nuclear energy plays in domestic energy plans and were helpful in assuring the accuracy of current Web Site information.  The Japanese presentation provided details on the September 1999 criticality accident at Tokai-mura.  It was noted that those who had access to the CSCAP Web Site were able to acquire near-real time, publicly available information on the radiation levels around the accident site before, during, and after the tragic incident. This is a clear demonstration of Japan's commitment to nuclear energy transparency.

The update presentations were followed by a comprehensive review of the data currently on the CSCAP Asia Pacific Nuclear Energy Transparency Web Site.  The Web Site is intended to provide a "one-stop shopping" location for information on regional nuclear energy programs.  The site begins with a general overview of CSCAP and its efforts at promoting nuclear energy transparency and then provides a comprehensive review of the types of technologies that are in use worldwide to assist in enhancing nuclear energy transparency.  The components of a comprehensive "generic nuclear energy transparency system" are laid out, thus providing a unique service to assist those individuals, industries, organizations, or governments desirous of more specific information on how to enhance nuclear energy transparency. 

In addition to this general data on nuclear transparency, the Web Site provides specific information about the various Asia Pacific nuclear energy programs. Individual sections provide details, in varying degrees of specificity, on nuclear energy facilities and programs for China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Taiwan, and the United States.  Each section begins with a general overview section, prepared largely through the efforts of Group members. These sections were reviewed in considerable detail during the meeting.  Thanks in large part to the work of our Group members, links have also been established to the web sites of the various power and research facilities, regulatory agencies, and environmental monitoring organizations region-wide.

Currently the web-site features cooperation in monitoring radiation in the air with four partner institutions: The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) has provided two links to hourly data at their O-arai and Tokai facilities. Similarly, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) offers a link to their nationwide monitoring system, IERNet. The Taiwan Radiation Monitoring Center offers both a link and sends their data directly to the CSCAP web-site. Finally, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) provides a link to monitoring from several western states in the U.S. Future development of this cooperation will work towards a common display format and a user-friendly capability to view all of these databases. 

Expanding this cooperation to cover more facilities in the Asia Pacific is important. Discussions with CSCAP-Russia and the Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM) officials both in Moscow and at the Seoul meeting have raised the possibility of installing atmospheric monitoring devices at a Russian nuclear energy facility, preferably at Bilibino in the Russian Far East.  We anticipate use of NEWNET technologies in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The CMC will pursue this initiative with MINATOM and LANL, employing existing links between MINATOM and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The CSCAP Asia Pacific Nuclear Energy Transparency Web Site remains a work in progress.  Nonetheless, the current password restrictions will be removed in the near future (target date: April 15, 2000) once CMC webmasters have made the changes and updates generated by the Nuclear Energy Experts Group. At that time, the site will be available to the general public at http://www.cscap.nuctrans.org/index.htm . Until the access control is removed, please use the access words: username = cscap and password = nuctrans@cmc.

During the meeting, concerns were expressed about possible redundancy between our efforts and those of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  There is no intention to duplicate the IAEA's efforts. The IAEA fosters technical development and is responsible for material accounting; in contrast, CSCAP's mission is to promote confidence and transparency. Nonetheless, such concerns underscore the need for closer cooperation with the IAEA.  We intend to invite IAEA representatives to the next CSBM Working Group meeting in order to learn more about their efforts and expose them more fully to ours.

Dr. Kaoru Kikuyama and Dr. Chu Wen-Chen also presented alternative approaches to building a generic "Asia Pacific Nuclear Energy Program Overview" outline.  This project had previously been called the Nuclear Energy "White Paper" project, but the term "White Paper" has been dropped since it carries the connotation that the end product will be an official government document.  Our intention is to lay out a format for a generic report that CSCAP CSBM Working Group participants could employ to create standardized descriptions of the respective nuclear energy programs in the region for subsequent posting on the web site.  The intent is to take publicly available information now contained in a variety of formats and in multiple documents and compile this data in a more standardized manner to serve as a more useful reference and transparency tool.  During the meeting, considerably headway was made in melding the two approaches into one comprehensive outline.  Our two specialists will continue to collaborate on this effort on behalf of the broader group. 

Looking toward the future, it was announced that the fifth Nuclear Energy Experts Group meeting would be held in Washington, DC on May 22-24, 2000 in conjunction with the thirteenth CSCAP CSBM Working Group meeting. The meeting will include a demonstration and review of the Asia Pacific Nuclear Energy Transparency Web Site and a session aimed at finalizing the format for the Program Overviews prior to the preparation of individual studies.  We will also have a presentation on the IAEA and investigate measures for more closely coordinating our respective activities. A review of existing and new proposals for managing spent fuel and radioactive waste, including regional storage schemes, will also be discussed.  We are also arranging a visit to a nearby U.S. nuclear energy production facility for all CSBM Working Group and Nuclear Energy Experts Group participants.

The Cooperative Monitoring Center has also announced that they will be sponsoring a Workshop on Transparency and Cooperation in the Back End of the Fuel Cycle on July 24-27, 2000.  The Conference will be held at the CMC in Albuquerque and at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  While this is not a CSCAP activity, all CSCAP Nuclear Energy Experts Group members will be invited to participate as transparency experts.

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