South Korea has been working on a geological repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste at Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang province. They just held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of the construction of the second phase of near-surface disposal facilities.
The Korean Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) applied for a construction permit for the second phase of the facility. It will comprise near-surface disposal facilities for low-level radioactive waste (LLW) with the capacity to deal with one million two hundred and fifty thousand fifty-gallon drums of nuclear waste. The new project will cover an area of about one hundred and forty thousand square yards. The facility is expected to cost one hundred and ninety-five million dollars. It is slated for completion in 2024.
The construction of the second phase of the Gyeongju facility was approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) in July of 2016. The Korean Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) granted a construction permit for the facilities in July of this year.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held on the 26th of August of this year. It was attended by Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang as well as representatives from companies including Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, KEPCO E&C and Daewoo E&C.
Lee stated that the second stage near-surface disposal system for LLW and intermediate-level (ILW) will be built with the utmost priority on citizens’ safety. He also said that as much as the present generation has benefited from the development of nuclear energy, it is also their duty to tackle the issues regarding high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and its disposal facilities. The minister added that there are plans in preparation to legislate special laws on the management of HLW and to establish a research and development technology roadmap.
The selection of a site for the one and a half billion dollar disposal facility began in 1986. This was eight years after South Korea’s first nuclear power reactor called the Kori Unit 1 began operating. Construction of the first phase of the repository began in early 2006 and was completed in June of 2014. That phase of the project consists of six underground silos. Each silo is one hundred and thirty-one feet high and seventy nine feet in diameter. This first phase of the repository can hold up to one hundred thousand barrels of ILW.
The NSSC gave approval in December of 2014 for full operation of the facility to start as the facility’s first phase. The first nuclear waste was sixteen drums of ILW waste within a concrete disposal container. These drums were put into one of the facility’s silos in July of 2015. Ultimately, the Gyeongju facility will be utilized to dispose of a total of eight hundred thousand barrels of waste.
LLW is typically composed of clothes, filters, equipment and tools that are routinely used at a nuclear site. It is usually placed in drums that are then compacted. ILW contains resins, chemical sludges, and metal fuel claddings. These have higher levels of radioactivity and require shielding.