2nd LD Writethru: S. Korea, U.S. reach deal on nuclear energy pact

South Korea and the United States on Wednesday revised the 42-year-old civil nuclear energy pact, opening the door for South Korea to reprocess spent nuclear fuel sometime in the future.

The two countries initialed the revised agreement on the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation in Seoul, South Korea's foreign ministry said.

Seoul and Washington launched the negotiations in October 2010 to revise the pact, which entered into force in 1974. The agreement was originally terminated in March 2014, but the deadline was extended to March the next year amid big differences on the revised pact.

South Korea, which generates about one-quarter of its electricity with nuclear reactors and exports nuclear power plant equipment and parts, has desired to develop reprocessing, or at least pyro-processing, capabilities.

The revised agreement opened the door for South Korea to pyro- process spent fuel as research and development. It means South Korea could pyro-process in the future if conditions are met.

The United States has been worried that permitting South Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel could make it difficult to deter other countries from seeking such technologies.

Washington has discouraged the spread of enrichment and reprocessing activities as these activities can be used to produce weapons-usable nuclear materials. Endi