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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 percent full in June with one site in Ulsan, which is the heartland of South Korea's nuclear industry, to be at full capacity in 2016. To accommodate the 100,000 tons of nuclear waste that South Korea is expected to generate this century, it needs a disposal vault of 20 square kilometers in rock caverns some 500 meters underground, according to a 2011 study by analyst Seongho Sheen published in the Korean Journal of Defense 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, 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 800,000 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. To make its demands more palatable to the U.S., South Korea is emphasizing a fledgling technology called pyroprocessing that it hopes will douse concerns about proliferation because the fissile elements that are used in nuclear weapons remained mixed together rather than being separated. South Korea's Atomic Energy Research Institute said pyroprocessing technology could reduce waste by 95 percent compared with 20 to 50 percent from existing reprocessing technology. The U.S. has agreed to conduct joint research with South Korea on managing spent nuclear fuel, including pyroprocessing, but some scientists say the focus on an emerging technology that may not be economically feasible is eclipsing the more urgent need to address permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel. "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," said Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, Miles Pomper and Stephanie Lieggi in a joint report for James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monetary Institute of International Studies. "With or without pyroprocessing, South Korea will need additional storage capacity." But for South Korea, researching and developing the technology is a bet worth making. "The U.S. does not need nuclear energy as desperately as South Korea," said Sheen, a professor at Seoul National University.
[Associated
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