Experts on radioactive waste in Korea and abroad came together for an international symposium at the Seoul Palace Hotel from June 8 to 9 to discuss ways of improving the safety of radwaste management.
In a keynote speech on the Day 1 session, Director General for Nuclear Power Industry Policy Chung Dong-hee at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) touched on a roadmap for the management of spent fuel that the government put on an administrative notice recently. “Currently, Korea has no facility for treating spent nuclear fuel, so we stockpile about 14,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the temporary storages of nuclear power units,” Dir.-Gen. Chung said.
If a related law is enacted this year, he said, the nation will be able to select a site for an interim storage for spent nuclear fuel.
“If a site is selected as planned, an interim storage and a permanent storage will be operational by 2035 and 2053, respectively.” In consideration of future uncertainties and economics, he said, the government is also considering an option of using a storage in a third country.
“About 400,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are now piled up globally,” said Christophe Xerri, director of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology in the IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy. A report on spent nuclear fuel, to be released late this year, will contain such useful indexes as each nuclear energy user country’s spent nuclear fuel stock and management methods.
In principle, each country treats its own radwste that it produces, but if several countries agree to, Xerri said, it is possible to create a multinational treatment storage. In any method, the foremost task is about the safety of management, said Xerri, adding that spent nuclear fuel is a task the current generation should tackle, not an issue of handing it over to the next generation.
Michael Siemann, head of the Division of Radiological Protection and Radioactive Management at the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD, said most countries should conform to established laws and administrative agreements, but it is not easy to give all rights to citizens. It is the most realistic to implement projects with stakeholders based on trust, he added. Simann said citizens do not 100 percent believe in the safety of nuclear facilities.
He added that it is important to communicate with enough time during the time-consuming process to gain social consensus. As the mid- and long-term road map for spent nuclear power is reveled, it will be pushed for in transparent and faithful fashion,” MOTIE Vice Minister Woo Tae-hee said.
The International Symposium on Safety Management for Confidence in Radioactive Waste Management brought together about 300 Korean and foreign experts, including officials from such international organizations as IAEA, OECD/NEA and the U.S. Department of Energy as well as foreign radwaste management companies, including Andra of France, SKB of Sweden and Nagara of Switzerland.
During the second day session on June 9, a representative from Posiva presented experiences the company had accumulated while selecting a site for the world’s first spent nuclear fuel storage and gaining permissions on the construction of the facility.
The symposium coincided with an art festival dubbed “Ways of Seeing,” in which about 50 students from three high schools in Seoul participated in a lecture on spent nuclear fuel, discussed ways of managing spent nuclear fuel and adopted a consensus on the voices of future generations. During the event, there was an exhibition of 38 pieces, 15 cartoonists and nine photographers produced on topics they picked up on their own after visiting the sites of managing spent nuclear fuel.
_3회 원자력폐기물 02.JPG)
