This undated photo provided by the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. shows a modular air-cooled canister storage facility at the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant, 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
SEOUL, July 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s push to build additional spent fuel storage facilities in the country is expected to gain traction as local residents living around the venue on Friday drummed up support for the plan.
The country has been speeding up a move to construct more facilities to store spent nuclear fuel rods at the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant, 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as its existing so-called modular air-cooled canister storage (MACSTOR) installations at the nuclear power plant face a risk of running out of space.
According to the poll of 145 resident representatives living within five kilometers of the nuclear plant, some 81.4 percent voted for the project.
The poll was carried out by a state panel after three weeks of detailed explanations, discussions and preliminary surveys.
MACSTOR holds spent fuel rods in dry casks after they are cooled in specially built pools of water. Wolsong has been using such a system for nearly 30 years.
The panel said it plans to make its recommendations to the government based on the survey results, with the industry ministry to make the final decision on the project.
The state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP), which operates the country’s 24 reactors, warned that existing MACSTOR at the plant was 95.36 percent full as of late March and will hit the ceiling in March 2022.
Such a development will force the shutdown of the plant’s five operational reactors.
The KHNP had asked for seven new MACSTOR structures able to hold 168,000 spent fuel bundles, which would double the existing capacity at Wolsong. And the construction should start in August this year given various factors.
The project has been drawing opposition from anti-nuclear power groups, which have called for the country to give up nuclear power generation that provides some 30 percent of the country’s power.
(Yonhap)
