Experts Fail to Reach an Agreement

Experts who recently reviewed the Korean government's spent nuclear fuel management policy have reached an agreement that a permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuels as high-level radioactive wastes is necessary. However, they failed to reach a consensus on when the spent nuclear fuel storage facilities of the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant will be saturated and whether additional modular air cooled storages (macstors) should be constructed as temporary storage facilities.

The committee on spent nuclear fuel management policy review released those experts’ report on March 25 and said that their agreement is to handle spent nuclear fuels with safety and in a way that can be accepted by the public.

However, the experts’ opinions are still divided on the urgent issue of additional macstor construction with the spent nuclear fuel storage facilities of the power plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province predicted to be saturated in March 2022.

Besides, they have yet to form a consensus on the amount of generation of spent nuclear fuels, the calculation of the exact time point of the saturation, and the safety of underground geological disposal mentioned as a way of disposing of the fuels. The committee is planning to make the issues public both regionally and nationwide based on the expert group report.

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