KEPCO NF (KNF) has been implementing a program to educate KNF executives on integrity this year by taking its cue from ancient literature, for the second year in a row.
The program offers a lecture on integration based on the lifetime and thoughts of the famed Confucian scholar Song Si-yeol of Joseon Dynasty at the Wooam Historical Site Park named after his penname, Wooam, and tours the park. KNF operates the program twice per month.
KNF President Lee Jae-hee said, “Ethical management is a basic for corporate management and a foundation for growth, and we’ll devote ourselves to put into practice integrated and transparent ethical management by implanting an educational program on integrity by helping executives and staff members making awareness toward integrity part of their daily life.”
KNF singed an MOU on integrity and ethical management with the Daejeon Metropolitan City government. KNF has been implementing an educational program, developed by the company in cooperation with the municipal government, for about one year. The program will be carried out on eight occasions between March 16 and June 22.
KNF Develops First ‘TBP Solvent Extraction Process’ for Uranium Refinement
KNF has developed uranium refinement & separation technology, a first for a Korean company. The refining process is a kind of chemical process which separates and purifies uranium through a solvent extraction method. KNF performed an efficiency test after five years of experimenting, in addition to a solvent extraction process and equipment design. As a result of the test, uranium that went through the purification process has met the purity which is required in nuclear fuel manufacturing processes.
CEO Lee Jae-hee said, “This achievement is the result of years of hard work to create new-value over nuclear fuel design and manufacture. Lee added. “We are going to expand the field of business through steady research and development on the basis of safety.” If uranium being stored at KNF is purified, it expects an import-substitution effect worth about $29 million.
In the long term, KNF anticipates it will secure proprietary technology related to the nuclear fuel cycle business and the export of technology and devices.
KNF Puts out Best Nuke Fuels in World
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.
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 develop 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.
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.
