KORAD Participates in ‘2026 WM Symposium’ in Phoenix, U.S.

CEO Cho Sung-don of the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) speaks the 2026 Waste Management Symposium, which took place in Phoenix, U.S., from March 8 to 11.

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) participated in the 2026 Waste Management (WM) Symposium, the world’s largest international conference on radioactive waste management and nuclear power plant decommissioning, which took place in Phoenix, U.S. from March 8 to 11.

KORAD explored international trends related to core agendas, such as safe management of radwaste, transportation, packaging, treatment, decommissioning, and environmental rehabilitation and stepped up ways of promoting cooperation with institutions and companies of major countries and offered support for Korean companies’ overseas market entry by jointly setting up a pavilion with its cooperative companies, such Goto Tech, GeoGreen 21 and PNC Tech.

This symposium is the world’s largest international conference on radioactive waste, bringing together 2,500 participants from 30 countries and 900 organizations.

Global experts presented and discussed topics related to radioactive waste management and nuclear decommissioning.

At the symposium, KORAD presented Korea’s third basic plan for managing low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste, the national research and development roadmap for establishing deep geological disposal facilities, and the strategic role of underground research laboratories.

KORAD also hosted KORAD Night, one of the official events, bringing together representatives of each country’s government, public entities and private sector companies.

The agency was to hold bilateral talks on joint R&D and technology cooperation with foreign radwaste institutions, including Posia of Finland and SKB of Sweden.

KORAD CEO Cho Sung-don said, “We will ramp up manpower and technology exchanges with advanced countries of radwaste management to ensure the safe radwaste management, and KORAD will push ahead with efforts to help SMEs export Korean-type radwaste management technology by upgrading its radwaste management technologies.”

A researcher with the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency conducts a radioactivity analysis via a radiation meter. (Photos: KORAD)

KORAD Given ‘A Grade’ in IAEA Radioactivity Analysis Evaluation

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency obtained an A Grade in all categories of the 2025 Radioactivity Analysis Proficiency Assessment, conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), KORAD said on Jan. 31.

The evaluation was made in methods of verifying accuracy and precision of radioactivity analysis outcomes with about 500 laboratories from 1,000 IAEA member countries in attendance.

KORAD obtained an “A” in all categories of water examples the agency received from IAEA - five gamma-emitting nuclides (²²Na, ⁶⁰Co, ¹³³Ba, ¹³⁴Cs, and ¹³⁷Cs).

The agency plans to expand analysis nuclides in order to secure its reliability.

KORAD collects 24 kinds of examples, including the soil and sea water from 119 locations around low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste treatment facilities, sea water transportation routes, and conducts about 2,750 cases of radioactivity environment surveys annually.

KORAD CEO Cho said, “Through the Radwaste Analysis Center, which went into operation this year, we will nurture a related industry ecosystem and build a safe radioactivity environment.”

KORAD discloses on its website the outcomes of low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste radioactivity analyses the agency conducts every year.