Dr. Koo has received BS (1983) in Nuclear Engineering from Seoul National University, and MS (1985) and Ph.D. (1994) in Nuclear Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He is a Vice President for nuclear fuel - light water reactor fuel and researcher reactor fuel - technology of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). In addition, he served as the Vice Chairman of the OCED/NEA Halden Program Group (HPG) in 2013 and the Chairman in 2014.

He has about 30 years of experience in nuclear fuel modelling, in particular fission gas release, fuel performance analysis, computer code development for predicting fuel behaviour, and the design and analysis of irradiation test of UO2 and MOX fuel for light water reactor. After the Fukushima accident in 2011, he is in charge of the project that is developing accident tolerant fuel (ATF) which is supposed to enhance fuel safety under all operating conditions, especially under design basis accidents (DBA) and beyond design basis accidents (BDBA). Furthermore, he is leading the fuel project that investigates spent fuel behaviour during interim dry storage conditions and transport and handling conditions. He published more than 100 journal and conference papers.

He has received several awards, including Academic Accomplishment Award (2004) from Korea Nuclear Society (KNS) and Outstanding Paper Award (2004) from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies.