By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea, with 20 nuclear power plants in operation already, started the construction of new atomic power plants in Ulsan, last week. However, the lack of storage facilities for spent fuel remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the country's plan to generate more power.
On Nov. 28, the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) broke ground in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, for the construction of Singori-3 and Singori-4 power plants, which would be the country's 25th and 26th atomic power stations, respectively.
Scheduled to be completed in 2013 and 2014, Singori-3 and Singori-4 plants _ each with a power generation capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts _ are dubbed the ``third-generation nuclear power stations'' with both high economic efficiency and safety
So, within the coming 10 years, the KHNP plans to complete at least eight nuclear power plants including Singori-1, 2, 3 and 4 as well as Sinwolseong-1 and 2, which have already been under construction, and Sinuljin-1 and 2, which are planned for 2016.
One of the reasons why the government is stepping up its efforts to build more nuclear power plants is that the atomic energy has a high economic efficiency and is free of CO2 emissions.
However, the country is now facing a more serious problem: shifting government policies on nuclear waste which must follow the construction of power stations and atomic power generation.
Usually, nuclear power plants are built with some storage for their own waste. But facilities within the existing plants are expected to reach saturation point by 2016. Nonetheless, the government has not come up with any comprehensive countermeasures yet.
Last month, the government began construction of the country's first separate repository for mid- and low-level nuclear waste in Gyeongju _ only after 20 years of controversy. But the site for high-level waste has not even been brought to the table for public discussion yet.
High-level waste is spent nuclear fuel that arises from the use of uranium in a nuclear reactor, containing the fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core.
High-level waste, which is very radioactive, is more dangerous than mid- or low-level waste and, therefore, requires special shielding during handling and transportation. It also needs cooling since it generates a lot of heat because of the high radioactivity level.
A typical large nuclear reactor produces some 25 to 30 tons of spent fuel per year. If the fuel is reprocessed and vitrified, the waste would only fill up about three cubic meters per year, according to experts.
South Korea has a combined storage capacity of about 12,093 tons for spent nuclear fuel that comes from its 20 atomic power plants currently in operation. As of June, however, some 74.8 percent of the total capacity _ 9,054 tons _ was already filled up.
Without further facilities, the country would have no more place to store spent nuclear fuel in less than 10 years. In a worst-case scenario, all the atomic power plants of the country would have to be then shut down.
``Our power plants are now resorting to some makeshift measures. For example, they are storing the waste more densely in limited areas,'' Choi Jong-won of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) said. ``We should hurry up on talks for countermeasures.''
Apart from the time needed for a public consensus, it is expected to take more than 20 years for the analysis of geological features of a dump site for high-level waste given the precedents of other countries including the United States, Japan and Sweden.
``We have already experienced a tough time in selecting a site for the storage facility for mid- and low-level waste,'' a KHNP official said. ``We think the selection of the site for a repository for high-level waste will be much more difficult.''