Spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at major nuclear power plants in Korea are expected to gradual..

사진 확대

A view of Gori Nuclear Power Plant Units 1, 2, and 3 (in order from right) located in Gijang-gun, Busan.

Spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at major nuclear power plants in Korea are expected to gradually become saturated next year. There is a need for discussions on revising the nuclear agreement with the United States to secure the authority to reprocess spent nuclear fuel as soon as possible.

According to data submitted by Yoo Yong-won, a member of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly, from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power on the 14th, “Predictions on the storage status and saturation rate of spent nuclear fuel by nuclear power plants over the next 10 years,” the Kori nuclear power plant will reach its limit next year. The current saturation rate of spent nuclear fuel storage at the Kori nuclear power plant is 93.5%, but the saturation rate will be 95.1% next year.

Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant will have saturated storage facilities in 2029. Currently, the saturation rate of spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant is 85.3%, but it will soar to 95.1% by 2029. The saturation rate of storage facilities at Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant, a heavy water reactor, is 84.6% this year, which will be full in 2033 (98.6%). The saturation rate forecast was calculated based on power generation.

KHNP plans to reduce the saturation rate of existing storage facilities by utilizing dry storage facilities. Spent nuclear fuel burned at nuclear power plants is first wet stored in storage in the power plant, which is used when wet storage facilities are saturated or when nuclear power plants need to be dismantled. It is a method of blocking spent nuclear fuel in a tank with concrete and transferring it to a storage facility on the nuclear power plant site for storage.

KHNP plans to replace the wet storage table of the second Kori nuclear power plant in 2027 as a dense storage unit and operate a dry storage facility in 2031. Through this, the goal is to reduce the saturation rate to 68.6%. Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant plans to operate dry storage facilities from 2030 to reduce the saturation rate to 65.3% and Wolseong Heavy Water Reactor plans to reduce the saturation rate to 87.5% by expanding dry storage facilities in 2034.

The problem is that it takes a long time to build dry storage facilities. According to the “Special Act on the Management of High-Level Disineral Waste,” which will take effect at the end of this month, the installation of dry storage facilities requires approval from the Prime Minister’s Administrative Committee and consent from local residents.

The special law specified securing intermediate storage facilities and permanent disposal facilities of spent nuclear fuel as fundamental solutions, which are expected to take decades to install as geological surveys, site selection, and consultation with residents are required. In particular, in the case of dry storage facilities, the existence of nuclear fuel can be confirmed with the naked eye, which inevitably causes opposition from local residents.

The government also stressed to the U.S. the need to revise the Korea-U.S. nuclear energy agreement and stressed that spent nuclear fuel storage capacity has reached a threshold. In response, the South Korean and U.S. authorities have reached an agreement to allow South Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear fuel at a level close to the 1988 U.S.-Japan nuclear agreement. Through the agreement, Japan has the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and enrich uranium at less than 20%.

In the case of Korea, reprocessing is currently prohibited, and enrichment is possible only on the premise of the U.S. consent. Yoo stressed, “We, which operates 26 nuclear power plants, should be recognized at least as much as Japan.”