President Lee Jae-hee of KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Co. is in the photo taken to commemorate KNF selected as one of the 48 companeis with Excellent Quiality Competitinvess Enterprises by Korean Agnecy for Technology and Standards in the 42nd National Quality Competitveness Competition on Nov. 3, this year.

KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Co. (KNF) has been named one of the top 48 companies with Excellent Quality Competitiveness Enterprises in Korea by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. They made the list after being put through the Quality Competitiveness Assessment System (QCAS) to examine the competitiveness and quality of their products.

KNF, launched in 1982, designs and produces nuclear fuels, which the company exports to a number of countries with nuclear power plants, including the U.S., Brazil and the UAE, among others.

KNF started its overseas operation in 1988 when it imported a nuclear power quality guarantee system for the first time. The company made great progress by continuously improving the system by thoroughly adapting to and adopting overseas standards and conditions for certification on its quality management. In 1997, the company secured the ISO 9001 Quality Certification without outside consulting to build a base for its customer satisfaction system. The company secured the ISO 9001 in 2000 and in 2008 secured a transfer certification to be able to conduct quality management activities throughout the company.

KNF did not stop there, but went further in developing its own international quality standards to get the global attention of the nuclear power industry. 

The “Gadolinia quantity measurement law” which KNF developed in 2012, has been confirmed as an international standard after getting through the final stages and the approval of all 13-member countries of the ISO nuclear power section.

KNF announced on Aug. 8 that it had developed its own nuclear power plant operational support system dubbed the “Operational Core Analysis and Simulation System” It has become the third company in the world to develope its own operational support system after Westinghouse of the U.S. and Areva of France.

The OASIS system monitors and predicts the operating conditions of nuclear reactors. The system has been developed as part of the three-year national project of “The Development of Core Protection & Core Monitoring System for Export” since 2013, led by KEPCO NF. With OASIS, an operator can monitor the conditions of nuclear reactors graphically and take measures to secure safety accurately when nuclear reactors stop.

Moreover, the new system helps set up the best operating strategy using the simulation function in advance when an operator changes the output of nuclear reactors, boosting the safety of nuclear power plants and maximizing the utilization rates.

KEPCO NF plans to fully test the new system at nuclear power plants from the second half of this year. The company expects to improve the utilization rates of power plants and create economic ripple effects when it uses the system at 12 Korean nuclear power plants in the future. Under the terms of the joint venture agreement, Westinghouse will hold a 55 percent stake in the joint venture and KNF will own 45 percent. The new company - KW Nuclear Components Co (KWN) - will be located at the KNF fuel fabrication plant in Daejeon.

In nuclear reactors, control rods are inserted into or removed from guide tubes within a fuel element in order to control the neutron flux - that is, to increase or decrease the number of neutrons which will split further uranium atoms. This in turn affects the thermal power of the reactor, the amount of steam generated, and hence the electricity produced. A control element assembly (CEA) is a cluster of control rods, which are moved by a single drive mechanism.

South Korea employs 20 nuclear reactors to generate 40 percent of its electricity. All the nuclear fuel for Korea's power reactors is manufactured by KNF.

A view of the building in Daejeon,where KNF has offices.(Photos: KNF)