Gov’t urged to join Belgian campaign to reduce toxic waste

By Kang Hyun-kyung

A ruling Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker called on the government to consider joining a Belgian international research initiative aimed at reducing spent nuclear fuel.

The proposal on the so-called MYRRHA project came a week before negotiators from South Korea and the United States are scheduled to meet to discuss the revision of a bilateral atomic energy accord. The pact will expire in March 2014.

During the National Assembly’s annual audit of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Rep. Kim Seon-dong of the GNP underlined the need for the Korean government to participate in the Belgian initiative.

“I was wondering why President Lee Myung-bak stopped short of making Korea’s interest in the project public during the summit with Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme held on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Oct. 5,” Kim said.

“I think the government’s participation in the project serves the national interest.”

MYRRHA is an international project led by the Belgian Nuclear Research Center to build infrastructure for research on treating spent nuclear fuel.

According to the MYRRHA website, it will be the key for advancing research and development for the transmutation of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Transmutation consists of the conversion by fission of long-lived spent nuclear fuel into less toxic substances, it said.

In March 2009, the Belgian government approved a plan to provide financial support for the 10-year project.

According to Rep. Kim, the Korean government was mulling over making a 5 or 6 percent investment in the 1.5 trillion-won project.

If completed, the technology would help reduce the volume of toxic spent fuel by one hundred times.

According to KAERI, the nation uses 4,000 tons of uranium annually, which is supplied from overseas, to produce electricity. The consumption produces 700 tons of waste every year.

As the nuclear waste piles up, industry experts have warned the country’s storage facilities will reach capacity by 2016.

Given the capacity limit, technology that can help reduce nuclear waste is essential for the country.

“France, Germany, Italy and Spain are participating in it and the combined portion of the four countries’ investments accounts for 30 percent of the entire project,” he said.

Korea will lose 10 trillion in economic benefits, if it decides not to join the project, he warned.

Asked about the government’s official stance on the matter, a government official said on condition of anonymity that Korea has not made a decision yet.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy was engaged in a tug of war over the need for Korea to join the project, he told The Korea Times over the phone.

Earlier, some politicians called on the government to request the U.S. government to allow it to reprocess spent fuel in a safe way such as pyro-processing so that it could reduce spent fuel.

Under the current accord, South Korea is not allowed to reprocess spent fuel.

South Korea vowed not to enrich uranium or equip reprocessing facilities in the Inter-Korean Declaration of Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in 1992, in an effort to discourage North Korea from seeking a nuclear weapons program.

The country imports 97 percent of its energy requirement and 20 reactors provide almost 40 percent of South Korea’s electricity.

The United States made it clear last year that “the programmatic consent” for reprocessing would not be extended to Korea.

Officials from South Korea and the United States are to meet to discuss issues related to the revision of the atomic energy accord from next Monday.