By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been investigating a secret nuclear fuel experiment conducted by a few South Korean scientists in 2000.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Thursday acknowledged that a few Korean scientists had conducted secret nuclear fuel experiments four years ago but added that it has nothing to do with a program for enriching or reprocessing nuclear materials.

A MOST spokesman said the unidentified Korean scientists separated 0.2 grams of uranium four years ago in the middle of a nuclear fuel research.

He said the South Korean government submitted a report on the secret scientific activity to the IAEA last month.

In response, an IAEA inspection team has arrived in Korea on Aug. 29 for a weeklong investigation.

``Some Korean scientists, as part of research into domestic production of nuclear fuel, carried out experiments of laser isotope separation on materials such as gadolinium, thallium, samarium and also a small amount of uranium,’’ the MOST said in a statement.

The MOST didn’t know about the uranium separation until Korea ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol in February, when the full scale of the experiments was brought to light.

The comprehensive safeguard requires member nations to report any uranium separation at research institutes and universities as well as nuclear power plants to the Vienna-based IAEA.

In compliance with the Protocol terms, South Korea submitted an initial declaration regarding the four-year-old experiment to the UN nuclear watchdog on Aug. 17 this year.

The ministry, however, flatly denied suspicion the South Korean government had broken its commitment on nuclear proliferation or that the experiment was geared toward developing nuclear weapons.

``The experiment using uranium was an isolated, laboratory-scale activity for scientific research and immediately after this, all related activities were terminated and the equipment dismantled,’’ the statement said.

South Korea remains firmly committed to obligations to use nuclear energy peacefully and will continue to comply strictly with nuclear non-proliferation promises, according to a statement by the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.

MOST Atomic Energy Bureau director general Cho Chung-won also brushed off the suggestion that the experiment was associated with the secret development of weapons.

``The separated uranium was not weapons-grade one. And how we can make bombs with 0.2-gram of uranium acquired by a one-off experiment,’’ Cho said.

Cho insisted such incidents are possible at any time and that as long as scientists report them to the government and the IAEA properly, nothing is wrong.

``The real problem is that the scientists didn’t let the government know the experiment result four years ago,’’ Cho said.

Contrary to some foreign reports, Cho added the scientists involved in the 2000 incident are not under any investigation and they are currently conducting other research activities.

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry also reconfirmed that Seoul will ``continue to comply with its obligations to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and to honor the inter-Korean joint declaration to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.’’

``The fact that South Korea has become the 39th country to ratify the Protocol in the world and that we reported the experiment through our first declaration in a thorough and transparent manner demonstrates once again our firm commitment to nuclear non-proliferation,’’ the statement said.

South Korea came close to developing nuclear weapons in the 1970s, but scrapped the program under pressure from the United States.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr