The National Nuclear Security Administration, Japan and South Korea signed a trilateral agreement to collaborate on emerging nuclear technologies.
The three countries signed what they called a framework to create a memorandum of cooperation that will launch early next year to “facilitate scientific collaboration in critical and emerging technology areas,” the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said in a Dec. 8 statement.
The signing of the framework stems from political commitments made during an Aug. 18 summit at Camp David between President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol, the NNSA said. It also came ahead of the meeting on Dec, 9 between the three countries’ national security advisors in Seoul.
“This exciting partnership ultimately will enable the United States, Japan, and the ROK to collaborate at the forefront of new scientific and technological domains and reap economic and security benefits from the application of new knowledge and discoveries,” said NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby.
The framework seeks to enhance cooperation on joint research and development in “priority critical and emerging technology areas” that have not been hammered out yet. Those areas likely will include computational sciences, such as advanced computing and artificial intelligence, materials sciences, and environmental sciences, such as atmospheric and earthquake modeling, the NNSA said.
Hruby signed the agreement on behalf of the United States. Japanese Secretary General for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Matsuo Hiroki signed for Japan while Cho Seong Kyung, first vice minister and minister of science signed for Korea.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will participate in the collaborative technology exchange.
