S. Korea to develop 100 advanced industry materials within 5 years

Seoul, (IANS) South Korea will seek to secure technologies for 100 advanced materials for the chip, biology, and other industries within the next five years, the science ministry said on Thursday, a move aimed at strengthening its own supply chains.According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the government will support science research and development projects to independently develop 100 advanced materials, including 20 semiconductor-related materials, 23 battery materials, and 10 biomaterials, Yonhap news agency reported.The government also has a 10-year plan to develop 100 materials for future technologies, such as artificial intelligence chips, quantum, robotics, and space, to secure a competitive edge against other countries in the industries.The move comes as experts assess South Korea's technological capabilities in advanced materials remain at 84 per cent of the level of the United States and also lag behind those of China and Japan, the ministry explained."The advanced materials sector is a key driving factor that determines the country's capabilities in key strategic technology fields, such as semiconductors and secondary batteries," Science Minister Yoo Sang-im said."We will expand investment in materials technologies for the present and future to preemptively respond to any potential global supply chain crisis," he...

Read More........→January 06, 2025

South Korea develops novel nuclide separation technology

(Image: KAERI)The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute says it has developed a new concept for the world's first nuclide separation device that employs robots and sensors.In order to safely manage radioactive waste, radionuclide analysis must be conducted to determine what radionuclides are present within it. This analysis is generally divided into three processes: preprocessing, separation, and measurement.Nuclide separation is the process of adding a reagent that reacts with a specific nuclide to a sample of melted radioactive waste to separate each nuclide. There is currently a manual method of adding the reagent to a separation container by gravity and an automatic method using a pump.The manual method cannot control the speed of the reagent, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) notes, and the automatic method has the disadvantage of having complex components such as pumps, valves, and numerous tubes connected to the valves, and that the valves must be controlled according to a predetermined time. In particular, the automatic method requires cleaning each time to ensure that no radioactive samples remain in the valves that control the injection of the reagent and the tubes through which the reagent moves.KAERI says the separation device it has developed uses an automatic method, but a liquid handling robot that...

Read More........→December 27, 2024