Nuclear Waste in South Koreaby Justin Chung | 27-05-2017 19:51 |
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More countries are relying on nuclear energy to meet industrial and household energy demand. And Korea is no exception. Korea is world's fifth-largest user of nuclear energy and it has 25 reactors currently in operation which provide about one-third of South Korea's electricity from 23 GWe of plant. Three more reactors are under contruction capable of producing 4 GWe, while eight additional planned with total capacitiy of 11 GWe. As all energy sources have pros and cons, use of nuclear energy also requires careful and thorough mangement of the waste it produces. The spend (used) nuclear fuels for nuclear power generation are considered high level radioactive waste and are temporarily stored in nuclear power stations until the relevant governing body decides to either recycle or dispose permanently. Currently, Korea has kept the 'Wait and See' approach when it comes to nuclear waste mangement since there is uncertainty in reprocessing procedure and its outcome. Reprocessing is a method used to separate plutonium and uranium from other nuclear waste contatined in the spent fuel. Problem with this method is that it increases the risk of nuclear terrorism as access to plutonium and uranium would be much easier. In the meantime, Korea has approximately 9,000 tonnes of its used fuel stacked in temporary storage pools. As experienced in Fukushima Japan crisis in 2011, storing large amounts of spent fuel is like a ticking time bomb. Since reprocessing is costly and technologically challenging task, an alternative solution might be to store spent fuel in metal and concrete-covered containers which may hold it for upto 100 years. There is no quick fix to the nuclear waste issue, but as we all experienced through the Fukushima crisis we need to start making hard decisions in finding permanent and safe solution to the nuclear waste issue. <Sources> |
