Dear Colleagues,

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all colleagues, including faculty members, students and alumni, for their great efforts and contributions to the KAIST NQE department throughout the year 2017. The Year 2017 was such an eventful year, especially for the Korean nuclear community. While the government nuclear energy policy matter in 2017 was tough one for all of us, it also provided us an opportunity to reconfirm the roles and importance of nuclear energy for our country, making us to start preparing the future with new courage and hope.

We would like to share selected NQe news in 2017 as listed below.

MIT-KAIST Joint Symposium on “Future and Vision of Nuclear Technology” was held on March 30 at KAIST. MIT faculty members including Kord Smith, Ju Li and Matteo Bucci, KAIST faculty members and students, many colleagues from Korean nuclear industry, national research institutes and academia attended the symposium and enjoyed presentations and very fruitful discussions about innovative reactor design and new materials for future nuclear power plants.

Prof. Poong Hyun Seong was selected as a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society in June. The American Nuclear Society annually selects scholars who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the nuclear engineering as Fellows and Prof. Seong was selected as a ANS Fellow for his achievements and contributions to the field of nuclear I&C and human engineering. Congratulations.

Prof. Sungyeol Choi joined the department as assistant professor on September 1. Prof. Choi is an outstanding young scholar in the field of back-end nuclear fuel cycle chemistry and nuclear nonproliferation. We sincerely welcome Prof. Choi.

Prof. Nam Zin Cho received "Eugene P. Wigner Reactor Physicist Award" by the American Nuclear Society in November. The ward is to recognize scholar who has made the most outstanding contribution to the nuclear reactor physics. Prof. Cho was awarded for the first time in Asia for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the field of nuclear reactor physics. Congratulations

Prof. Seungryong Cho received the Technology Innovation Award given by KAIST School of Engineering in December. Prof. Cho was recognized for his outstanding research achievements in X-ray dual energy material classification technology, breast cancer early diagnosis imaging technology, and future dental care technology based on CT Metrology, and outstanding technology transfers to industries. Congratulations.

In 2017, great efforts have been made to communicate with general public to deliver the scientific facts about the nuclear energy. Many colleagues of the Korean nuclear community have worked very hard. All KAIST NQe members including faculty and students have also put great efforts together and especially, Prof. Poong Hyun Seong and Prof. Yong Hoon Jeong have played an leading role in this effort. The on-line video lectures on suitability of nuclear phase-out policy by Prof. Yong Hoon Jeong and management of spent fuels in Swiss, the Netherlands and Sweden by Prof. Ho Jin Ryu were a part of departmental efforts to communicate with general public on nuclear energy issues.

Michael Shellenberger, who was selected as Hero of Environment by Times magazine in 2008, gave an invited lecture on October 11 at KAIST. In his lecture titled “Energy for Peace, Prosperity and Nature”, he emphasized the role and importance of nuclear energy. The lecture was followed by very active discussions with KAIST students. Prof. Steven Chu, a former US secretary of energy and a Nobel Laureate in Physics, gave KAIST Distinguished Lecture on the future energy on November 23. In his lecture titled “Climate Change and the Role of Science in Achieving a Sustainable Future” Prof. Chu pointed out the seriousness of climate change and environmental problems, and emphasized the role of nuclear energy as a way to overcome the issue. In the afternoon on the same day, he gave another lecture at a special forum held in Seoul. He emphasized the importance of nuclear energy again, and urged the Korean government to reconsider its nuclear energy phase-out policy. The lecture was followed by a panel discussion with former Ministers of Science and Technology Kun Mo Chung and Shang Hi Rhee, and a former Minister of Environment Myung Ja Kim. We would like to thank Prof. Man-Sung Yim and Prof. Poong Hyun Seong for their efforts to organize the forum and all the participants.

The NQE Year End Party 2017 was held on December 15 with about 180 participants from the department. All the participants had an opportunity to look back the year 2017 with photos, celebrate accomplishments and contributions, and express their best wishes for the coming new year. During the party, 10 students were recognized for their contributions and achievements with the NQe Student Service Awards (Hyung-Bin Kim, Min-Ju Lee, Seong-Min Son and Hassan Muhmood Ul), the Best Undergraduate Student Awards (Jeong-Su Park, Hwan-Hee Cho and Tae-Seok Oh) and the Best Paper Awards (Jin-Young Heo, Sung-Hwan Lim and Dong-Yeol Yeo). All the participants enjoyed dinner, wonderful student music performances, and recreation time.

The KAIST NQe Alumni Association had a regular general meeting on May 25 in Daejeon with about 70 participants. The meeting started with the opening remarks by Gyun-Tae Kim President of NQe Alumni Association and the representatives from the major institutions, Sang Woon Shin (class of 1984, KHNP), Gwang Won Lee (class of 1985, KEPCO E&C), Joon Eon Yang (class of 1986, KAERI), Jong Sung Yoo (class of 1987, KNF), which was followed by a special seminar by Jong Bae Choi (class of 1985), the secretary general of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, on the nuclear energy policy. Best wishes for the NQe alumni association.

The New Year 2018 is coming. I sincerely thank you again for your continuing support and contributions to KAIST NQe and wish you and your family a very healthy and happy New Year.

Sung-Min Choi.
Head and Professor
Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering
KAIST