By Kim Tae-gyu
Korea is hoping that it will be able to recycle nuclear fuel through a cutting-edge technology called “pyro-processing” after the country agreed to conduct a joint study with researchers in the United States.
Seoul and Washington recently agreed the details on a three-stage joint project, which is scheduled to take place over the next 10 years. The first-phase research will start soon on pyro-processing to conclude next year.
Korea is looking for positive results in the two-year preliminary study so that the nation can earn the rights to reprocess spent nuclear fuels without having to worry about proliferation under a new contract with the U.S.
The current Korea-U.S. nuclear energy agreement, which bans any types of nuclear fuel reprocessing by the former, will expire in 2014 and the two have to come up with a new deal before then.
“During the first stage, the two countries will delve into the technical feasibility and commercial viability of pyro-processing by building laboratory-level facilities,” said an official at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
“Another issue is whether it would undermine non-proliferation efforts. We want to see encouraging results so that Korea will be allowed to use pyro-processing in the new Korea-U.S. agreement.”
Korea operates 21 commercial reactors to meet a third of its energy demand and has been desperate to be given the green light in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel due to a lack of capacity to store high-level radioactive waste.
Korea has already accumulated over 10,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel stored at provisional facilities next to nuclear reactors.
In this climate experts claim that pyro-processing is the only option for Korea, which can tackle the two problems of increasing nuclear waste and weaponizing through reprocessing.
“The capacity of Korea’s interim dumps for high-level radioactive waste will run out fast. It will hit full capacity in 2016 but we are struggling to build permanent waste sites,” Korea Nuclear Energy Promotion Agency Chairman Rhee Jae-hwan said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
“Knowing that it took almost two decades to set up the sites for low-level radioactive dumps, we will not be able to build ones for high-level waste by 2016. Hence, we have no other choice but to reuse the spent nuclear fuel.”
Seoul has been developing pyro-processing since 1997 based on the belief that the solution is designed to reprocess spent fuel without extracting weapons-grade plutonium from it. But some critics insist that pyro-processing will also make that possible.