Radioactive waste storage facilities set to hit capacity earlier than estimated

Shin Kori nuclear reactors in Ulju County in Ulsan [YONHAP]

Radioactive waste storage facilities in Korea will reach their capacity one to two years earlier than previously expected, as the government plans to ramp up nuclear power in the country’s energy mix.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Friday, temporary storage facilities for spent nuclear fuels at Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla, will reach capacity by 2030.

It is a year earlier than initially estimated.

Spent fuel storage at the Hanul plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, will reach the limit by 2031, also a year earlier than initially estimated.

The shortening of the deadline was driven by the government’s decision to increase nuclear utilization.

According to the latest long-term energy policy plan announced in January, nuclear energy’s contribution to the energy mix will reach 32.4 percent by 2030, compared to 27.4 percent in 2021.

As such, the Energy Ministry updated the figures from the previous estimation, which was based on the former administration’s plan released in 2021.

While the former Moon Jae-in government pushed for a nuclear phase-out, the current Yoon Suk Yeol administration is actively promoting nuclear utilization.

High-level nuclear waste refers to spent nuclear fuel or other highly radioactive materials produced after uranium rods are irradiated inside a reactor. Spent rods are stored in cooling pools at nuclear plants and then transferred to dry cask storage if available. Both the wet storage and dry storage at nuclear plants are temporary storage facilities.

After being stored temporarily at the facility, the high-level waste is then transported to interim storage facilities for long-term storage of 50 to 100 years before being buried in underground repositories for final disposal.

Korea does not yet have an interim storage facility for high-level nuclear waste.

“The issue of high-level nuclear waste management remained unsolved for a long time,” said Lee Seung-ryul, head of the bureau of nuclear power policy at the Energy Ministry, during a press briefing Friday.

“As three bills regarding high-level nuclear waste management have been put forward to the National Assembly after 10 years of public discussion, now we desperately need a speedy passage of the bills.”

The government aims to build interim storage by 2043 and a deep geological repository — a final disposal facility constructed deep underground — by 2060.

BY JUNG SI-NAE, SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]