Landmark construction for the Korea Radiation Applications Research Center began. The ground-breaking ceremony was officially held on 18 June 2003 at Jeong-Eup city, about 200 km southwest from Seoul and only 50 km from Daejeon. The Prime Minister of Korean Government, Mr. K. Koh, said at the ceremony that the Korean Government would allocate significant amount of budget to the Center annually in order to encourage radiation related research and development activities. The Center is being organized at present within the framework of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI).

The new Center will equip with 2 Gamma Irradiators (1 million curie and 100,000 curie, respectively), an Electron Beam Accelerator (10 MeV), an Ion Beam Irradiation Facility (300 KeV), an RI Production Cyclotron (30 MeV), a Gamma Greenhouse, and other necessary research facilities. Main research function the Center will be focused on to further identify and verify the characteristics of radiation and also research on radiation effect to the materials. In addition, the Center will emphasize development of radiation generating technology and radiation application technology. The Center will also greatly stress cooperation with potential end-users.

The Center when completed (end of 2005) will be one of the largest and modern installations in the region entirely dedicated to the Radiation Technology (RT) research and development for practical applications. The Center further aims to become a hub as the nation’s RT think tank that will eventually play a catalytic role to develop advanced technology through active linkage with NT, BT, ET and other state-of-the-arts technologies. To this regard, it is expected that the Center when functioning will also contribute to the regional need and is hoped to be an effective tool for RCA programmes.