Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy
한국어

About the Journal

Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy (원자력전략·정책연구, ISSN 2983-1547) is published by the Nuclear Future Technology Policy Research Institute, attached to the College of Engineering of Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. Its central purpose is to contribute in practical terms to the advancement of nuclear and non-proliferation technology and policy in Korea, by building on a deep technical understanding of the nuclear field and combining it with social science analysis. Its significance lies beyond the accumulation of scholarly knowledge: it is in the search for comprehensive and workable answers to complex nuclear questions.

한국어 / Korean

2023
founded
2
issues per year
11
editorial board members
2
reviewers per article
None
author charges

Purpose and Significance

The journal pursues the following aims, in order to help resolve nuclear questions at the national and the international level and to raise the quality of scholarship in the field.

Bridging engineering and the social sciences
The journal carries engineering subjects such as the development and deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear hydrogen production alongside analysis drawn from international politics, security, economics and social culture. It gives close attention to contested policy and social questions: regulatory issues in non-proliferation and nuclear security, the breach of international norms that pursuing nuclear armament would entail, the attitudes and perceptions of ordinary citizens toward a high level radioactive waste repository, and public participation in nuclear safety planning.
Setting future strategy and policy direction
In keeping with its title, the journal seeks out timely and practical policy proposals. Recent examples are safety regulation for the SMR era together with the legal and institutional support needed for early market entry, the role of nuclear generation in meeting 24/7 CFE (Carbon Free Energy) commitments, and reform of the nuclear export system.
Scholarly trust and research ethics
Every manuscript goes through rigorous review and editing, and every author is required to submit a written pledge to observe research ethics. Plagiarism and duplicate publication are guarded against, so that scholarly trust is secured before anything else.
Exchange among researchers
Submission is open widely to researchers and specialists in Korea and abroad who work in nuclear energy and related fields, and neither a submission fee nor a publication fee is charged.

Aims and Scope

Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy publishes original scholarly work on the policy, legal, institutional, strategic and safety questions raised by nuclear energy and nuclear technology. Its aim is to give researchers, regulators, engineers and policy practitioners a single place in which those questions can be argued out to an academic standard, in Korean or in English, with the reasoning open to scrutiny.

The journal covers nuclear policy, nuclear strategy, nuclear technology, nuclear safety and non-proliferation. Within those fields it welcomes empirical studies, legal and institutional analysis, comparative and international work, engineering studies with a policy bearing, and argued policy proposals. It is particularly interested in work that does not sit inside a single discipline: questions in which reactor engineering, domestic law, international norms and public acceptance bear on one another at the same time. Work of that kind is often difficult to place in a journal devoted to one discipline, and the editors take the view that this is precisely where a journal such as this one is needed.

The journal does not publish work that has already appeared in another journal, work that is simultaneously under review elsewhere, a simple translation of an already published article, or a manuscript resubmitted without revision after having been rejected.

Subject areaPrincipal topics
Nuclear policyThe place of nuclear power in energy policy, the role of nuclear generation in meeting 24/7 CFE (Carbon Free Energy) commitments, public participation in nuclear safety planning, public acceptance and governance.
Nuclear strategyReform of the nuclear export system, international cooperation, industrial competitiveness, and long range visions for the role of nuclear energy toward 2050.
Nuclear technologyDevelopment and deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs), nuclear hydrogen production, advanced reactors, the fuel cycle and decommissioning.
Nuclear safetySafety regulation for the SMR era, legal and institutional support for early market entry and commercialisation, licensing, risk-informed approaches and accident management.
Non-proliferationSafeguards and nuclear security regulation, verification and disablement of uranium enrichment facilities, the international norms at stake should a state pursue nuclear armament, and strategic analysis of international nuclear partnerships such as AUKUS.
Spent nuclear fuelTechnical options for disposal and recycling, risk perception and social acceptance, and policy conflict and governance.

How this journal differs

Building on a deep understanding of nuclear technology, the journal brings policy, economic, social and international security perspectives to bear on it, and so opens ground that existing nuclear journals did not cover.

Point of differenceWhat it means here
Focus on nuclear policyJournals devoted to comprehensive energy policy or to economic analysis do not settle on nuclear energy itself. This journal is focused squarely on nuclear industry, research and development, and safety policy, through case studies of domestic policy such as public participation in nuclear safety planning and practical proposals such as reform of the nuclear export system.
Non-proliferation and international securityJournals specialising in nuclear security do not range widely over the political and strategic implications of the NPT regime as a whole, and general journals of international politics find it difficult to treat nuclear security in depth. This journal ties non-proliferation and international security closely to nuclear technology and policy: the international norms at stake should the Republic of Korea pursue nuclear armament, verification and disablement of uranium enrichment facilities, and strategic analysis of international nuclear partnerships such as AUKUS.
Interdisciplinary integrationNuclear engineering journals concentrate on technical research, and energy journals on a particular energy source or on economic analysis. This journal is given over to work that closes the gap between the two, discussing the latest SMR development alongside the non-proliferation and nuclear security regulation it raises and the legal and institutional support it needs.
Spent fuel as a shared platformSpent nuclear fuel has been treated separately by engineering journals and by social science journals, and no journal joined the two. The articles on spent fuel published here have come from researchers trained in engineering, in communication studies and in social psychology, which is to say they form a meeting point for specialists from different fields.
Timeliness and a forward lookMost journals take up the issues of the day. This journal actively seeks out work that sets a direction in advance, such as a vision for the future of nuclear energy toward 2050 and safety regulation and the prospects for commercialisation in the SMR era.

Publication information

Journal title
Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy
Title in Korean
원자력전략·정책연구
ISSN
2983-1547
Publisher
Nuclear Future Technology Policy Research Institute (NIFTEP), Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
Frequency
Twice a year, on 30 June and 31 December
Who may submit
No restriction. Anyone may submit, whatever their affiliation, degree or membership of any body.
Languages
Korean or English. Abstracts in Korean and English, and keywords in Korean and English, are required for every submission under the journal regulations. The abstracts of previously published articles are being transferred to this site and are not yet available online.

Open access statement

Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy is an open access journal. The full text of every article is made freely available on the day the issue is published. Readers may read, download and print articles without registering, subscribing or paying, and authors pay nothing to publish. Full texts are available on the publisher website and through the Korea Citation Index (KCI).

The economic rights in a published article are assigned to the publishing institute. Authors retain the right to use their own article for teaching and research and to deposit it in their institutional repository, citing the original publication. The journal has not adopted a Creative Commons licence; the terms on which third parties may reuse an article are set out on the Policies page.

Distribution

The journal is issued regularly twice a year and is distributed in two ways at once: online, as open access, and offline by post. It goes to government ministries (the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission), to specialist research institutes (KAERI, KINS and KINAC), to nuclear related departments at major universities, to the nuclear industry (Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, KEPCO Engineering and Construction and others), and to the National Assembly Research Service and academic societies. Printed copies are also placed and handed out at academic conferences and policy forums.

Peer review

ItemPolicy
MethodSingle-blind. Reviewers know who the authors are; authors are never told who the reviewers are.
ReviewersTwo per manuscript, each holding a doctorate in the field or having an equivalent research record.
Time limits20 days for a first review, 10 days for a second. The decision is issued within 10 days of the last report arriving.
DecisionsAccept · Accept with Revisions · Revise and Resubmit · Reject.
AppealWithin 15 days of the decision; decided within 30 days by people other than the original decision-maker.

The full policy, including the grounds on which a reviewer or an editor is recused, is on the Policies page.

The publisher

Institute
Nuclear Future Technology Policy Research Institute (NIFTEP), Seoul National University
서울대학교 원자력미래기술정책연구소
Research divisions
Future Technology Research Division: research on technologies that address unresolved problems in the nuclear field
Nuclear Control Research Division: integrated research on safety, security and safeguards
Nuclear Policy Centre: development of nuclear policy and research on improving safety

The journal is the forum in which the subjects covered by those three divisions are discussed as scholarship. More about the institute is at niftep.snu.ac.kr.

Publication record

IssuePublishedArticlesContents
Vol. 4, No. 130 June 20267Table of contents
Vol. 3, No. 231 December 20258Table of contents
Vol. 3, No. 130 June 20256Table of contents
Vol. 2, No. 231 December 20247Table of contents

History

FoundedJune 2023Volume 1, Number 1 was published. The journal set out to treat nuclear questions by combining a deep technical understanding of the field with social science analysis in one publication.
Regulations enactedNovember 2024Four sets of regulations (publication and submission, peer review, research ethics, editorial board) were enacted, fixing the procedures in writing.
KCI registrationDecember 2025The journal was registered with the Korea Citation Index as a candidate journal and began making full texts openly available.
Regulations revised in fullAugust 2026Recusal and withdrawal of reviewers, appeals, and post-publication correction and retraction were newly provided for, and regulations on the use of artificial intelligence were enacted.
Volume 4, Number 2December 2026The first issue to be reviewed under the revised regulations.

Indexing

The journal is registered with the Korea Citation Index (KCI) as a candidate journal (등재후보지) and has not yet been granted accredited (등재) status. It is not at present indexed in Scopus, Web of Science or DOAJ, and it does not assign DOIs. Applications are in preparation. The journal states this plainly rather than leaving it to be inferred.

Contact

Editorial Office
Review on Nuclear Energy Strategy and Policy Editorial Board
Room 411, Building 36, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Tel. +82-2-880-7231 · nspjournal@snu.ac.kr
Publisher
Nuclear Future Technology Policy Research Institute, Seoul National University
Room 402, Building 36 · Tel. +82-2-880-7213 · niftep@snu.ac.kr
Author GuidelinesPoliciesEditorial Board한국어 / Korean