Nuclear waste a growing headache for SKorea as US

Nuclear waste a growing headache for SKorea as US resists appeal for reprocessing technology
ULSAN, South Korea - North Korea's weapons program is not the only nuclear headache for South Korea. ally.
South Korea fired up its first reactor in 1978 and since then the resource poor nation's reliance on atomic energy has steadily grown. It is now the world's fifth-largest nuclear energy producer, operating 23 reactors. But unlike the rapid growth of its nuclear industry, its nuclear waste management plan has been moving at a snail's pace.
A commission will be launched before this summer to start public discussion on the permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel rods, which must be locked away for tens of thousands of years. under a 1973 treaty that governs how its East Asian ally uses nuclear technology and explicitly bars reprocessing. and France to do enrichment for it.
That treaty is at the heart of Seoul's current dilemma. It wants reprocessing rights to reduce radioactive waste and the right to enrich uranium,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which would reduce a hefty import bill and aid its reactor export business. The catch: the technologies that South Korea covets can also be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Accommodating Seoul's agenda would run counter to the Obama administration's efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and also potentially undermine its arguments against North Korea's attempts to develop warheads and Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. South Korea, with its history of dabbling in nuclear weapons development in the 1970s and in reprocessing in the early 1980s, might itself face renewed international suspicion.
"For the United States, this is a nonproliferation issue. For South Korea, this is the issue of high-level radioactive waste management and energy security,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Song Myung-jae, chief executive officer of state-run Korea Radioactive Waste Management Corp. "For a small country like South Korea,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], reducing the quantity of waste even just a little is very important."
President Park Geun-hye made revision of the 38-year-old treaty one of her top election pledges in campaigning last year,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. The treaty expires in March 2014 and a new iteration has to be submitted to Congress before the summer,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. The two sides have not narrowed their differences on reprocessing and enrichment by much despite ongoing talks,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
South Korea also argues that uranium enrichment rights will make it a more competitive exporter of nuclear reactors as the buyers of its reactors have to import enriched uranium separately while rivals such as France and Japan can provide it. It is already big business after a South Korean consortium in 2009 won a $20 billion contract to supply reactors to the United Arab Emirates. Congress, which has never given such consent to non-nuclear weapon states that do not already have reprocessing or enrichment technology.
"It is not the case that we think Korea will divert the material. It's not a question of trust or mistrust," Sharon Squassoni, director of the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said on the sideline of Asian Nuclear Forum in Seoul last month. "It's a question of global policies."
Nuclear waste storage is highly contentious in densely populated South Korea, as no one welcomes a nuclear waste dump in their backyard. Temporary storage for spent nuclear fuel rods at South Korea's nuclear plants was 71 per cent full in June with one site in Ulsan,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which is the heartland of South Korea's nuclear industry, to be at full capacity in 2016.
To accommodate the 100,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 tons of nuclear waste that South Korea is expected to generate this century,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], it needs a disposal vault of 20 square kilometres in rock caverns some 500 metres underground,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], according to a 2011 study by analyst Seongho Sheen published in the Korean Journal of Defence Analysis. "Finding such a space in South Korea, a country the size of the state of Virginia, and with a population of about 50 million, would be enormously difficult," it said.
The country's first permanent site to dump less risky, low level nuclear waste such as protective clothes and shoes worn by plant workers will be completed next year after the government pacified opposition from residents of Gyeongju city, South Korea's ancient capital,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with 300 billion won ($274 million) cash, new jobs and other economic benefits for the World Heritage city. The 2.1 million square meter dump will eventually hold 800,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 drums of nuclear waste.
"Opponents were concerned that the nuclear dump would hurt the reputation of the ancient capital," said Kim Ik-jung, a medical professor at the Dongguk University in Gyeongju.
South Korea's Atomic Energy Research Institute said pyroprocessing technology could reduce waste by 95 per cent compared with 20 to 50 per cent from existing reprocessing technology.
"Even under the most optimistic scenario, pyroprocessing and the associated fast reactors will not be available options for dealing with South Korea's spent fuel on a large scale for several decades,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Miles Pomper and Stephanie Lieggi in a joint report for James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monetary Institute of International Studies. does not need nuclear energy as desperately as South Korea," said Sheen,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a professor at Seoul National University..
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