[News Terms] Green Light for National Assembly Passage of 'High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Site Special Act'

High-Level Radioactive Waste Storage for at Least 100,000 Years, Site Selection Now Still Tight
Finland Planned High-Level Waste Disposal Facility in 1983, Completion Expected After 41 Years
Domestic Hanbit Nuclear Plant Storage Facility Saturated by 2030, Operation Suspension Inevitable

A green light has been turned on for the passage of the 'High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (HLWDF) Special Act,' which was at risk of being discarded in the 21st National Assembly. This is because concerns are growing that nuclear power plant operations may be halted due to saturation of temporary storage facilities starting in 2030, prompting the ruling and opposition parties to accelerate their final agreement.

The 'HLWDF Special Act' is a law designed to regulate in detail the management of high-level radioactive waste. Currently, there are no HLWDF facilities in South Korea; radioactive waste is stored and managed either in pools within nuclear power plants or, when pool capacity is exceeded, in other storage facilities.

Unit 1 of the Gori Nuclear Power Plant, where the first nuclear power plant dismantling work in Korea began on the afternoon of the 7th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Radioactive waste is classified into four categories: high-level, intermediate-level, low-level, and very low-level. The treatment methods differ for intermediate-, low-, very low-level, and high-level radioactive waste. Intermediate-, low-, and very low-level radioactive waste mainly consists of work clothes, gloves, and discarded parts generated during nuclear power plant operation and decommissioning, accounting for 90%, while the remaining 10% comes from hospitals, industries, and research institutes during radiation-related work and research, including reagent bottles, syringes, and tubes. These wastes are disposed of by methods such as landfill disposal, surface disposal, and cavern disposal.

High-level radioactive waste in South Korea generally refers to spent nuclear fuel with a heat generation rate of 2 kW/m³ or more and a radioactivity concentration of 4,000 becquerels (Bq) per gram or higher. Just as coal leaves behind coal ash after burning, nuclear fuel produces waste after use; this waste continues to emit radiation and requires separate storage facilities because it is neither reusable nor safe to leave uncontained.

Countries operating nuclear power plants must have HLWDFs. Spent nuclear fuel (high-level radioactive waste) must be stored permanently for at least 100,000 years to prevent further radiation emission. The storage site is the HLWDF. Since the facility must be built in a geologically stable rock formation safe from earthquakes and groundwater for at least 100,000 years, finding a suitable site is not easy.

Finland established its HLWDF plan in 1983, selected a site only in 2001 after 18 years, and began construction in 2016, 15 years later; the facility is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Sweden also took 10 years to select a site. France, the United States, Canada, and others have yet to build HLWDFs due to opposition from local residents, but efforts to persuade residents are ongoing.

The saturation points for high-level radioactive waste at domestic nuclear power plants are Hanbit in 2030, Hanul in 2031, Kori in 2032, Shin-Wolsong in 2042, and Saeul in 2066. By 2030, it will no longer be possible to store waste on nuclear power plant sites, which means nuclear power plant operations will have to be halted.

The National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee is negotiating for the ruling and opposition parties to pass the HLWDF Special Act and the Offshore Wind Power Special Act at the plenary session on the 28th. Discussions accelerated after Kim Seong-hwan, a member of the Democratic Party who had opposed the bill until the last moment, agreed to accept the government and ruling party's proposal.