In the previous days, the Korean delegation visited Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering (FJFI) of CTU in Prague at its own request. Members of the delegation were representatives of major Korean nuclear companies, universities and research institutions focused on nuclear technology (KHNP, KINGS, KAERI, KAIST). One of the big topics is the development of more durable and safer nuclear fuels, which is the focus of the organizer of the event and also one of the speakers at the symposium, Dr. Martin Ševeček from CTU.
The Korean experts gave lectures, visited the Nuclear Power Plant in Řež and held a meeting on the results and progress of joint Czech-Korean projects, on which the CTU, or FJFI, cooperates with the Koreans. The multi-day programme organised jointly with UJP Praha, a.s. culminated on Thursday 11 April with a symposium in Prague.
CTU Rector Vojtěch Petráček said that "joint projects between CTU and the Korean side are currently focused on the development of advanced fuels for large nuclear power plants and SMR technologies, analysis of standards in the field of nuclear technologies and their potential harmonization, research in the field of severe accidents, as well as verification and validation of software and hardware." The aim is to unify the Czech and Korean approaches. The programme of mutual visits by the Czech and Korean sides also includes efforts to further develop scientific cooperation and joint broader research in the nuclear field.
Korean scientists visited FJFI CTU last year and experts from the Prague nuclear faculty paid them a visit and internship in the summer. It is also worth mentioning that last June, FJFI CTU inaugurated the VR-2 nuclear reactor, the tenth reactor in the Czech Republic, and thus CTU became the only university in the world that operates two fission reactors and at the same time a fusion reactor - the Golem tokamak.
"The new VR-2 fission reactor will help us to better schedule teaching and scientific activities, because with the VR-1 reactor we were facing capacity limits. It serves not only the students of our faculty, and thus of CTU, but also students of other universities, foreign students and, of course, also people from practice who come to us for various training courses," explained Václav Čuba, Dean of the FJFI. In cooperation with the IAEA, the VR-1 reactor was equipped with the Internet Reactor Laboratory system, so that it is possible to conduct teaching or training online. This possibility is regularly used by students from the USA, Great Britain, Tunisia and other countries.