South Korea and the United States have "effectively" concluded their nuclear cooperation accord that would allow Seoul to reprocess spent nuclear fuel for the purpose of research and development (R&D), albeit in a limited way, Yonhap reported quoting government sources.
Seoul and Washington have been negotiating for more than four years to revise the 1974 accord over Seoul's civilian nuclear energy use, also known as the "123 agreement."
Under a revised accord, South Korea is likely to secure some autonomy in dealing with spent nuclear fuel for R&D purposes if doing so does not pose any risks of nuclear proliferation, they said.
Currently, Seoul should seek consent from the United States case by case when tinkering with spent nuke fuel.
"The two countries are in the last stage of fine-tuning some details after reaching agreement on major points of the nuke accord," a source said, asking not to be named.
South Korea has been in talks with the aim of meeting its three goals for the negotiations -- winning the right to deal with spent nuke fuel, securing stable supply of nuclear fuels and promotion of exports of nuclear power plants.