[Square] Urgent Need to Expand Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant's MACSTOR for Safety

Recently, there has been a growing anti-nuclear voice regarding the expansion of the temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant. The argument is that since there is no place to store spent nuclear fuel, the nuclear power plants should be shut down. Spent nuclear fuel is the fuel that has been used in a nuclear power plant. It emits strong radiation and must not be handled carelessly. It is common practice to store it in pools inside the nuclear plant for several years, then move it to temporary or interim storage before sending it to a permanent disposal site.

Although a public discussion was held in 2016 and a legislative bill was proposed for the construction of a disposal site, it is currently stalled under this government under the pretext of reexamination. Meanwhile, the storage capacity saturation rate of spent nuclear fuel at Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant has exceeded 90%. At this rate, by March 2022, no more fuel can be stored, and it may be necessary to shut down three reactors at Wolseong. Considering the construction period of the temporary storage facility called MACSTOR, this is an urgent issue. Anti-nuclear groups are exploiting this very weakness.

However, if we consider safety, which the government has cited as the rationale for phasing out nuclear power, spent nuclear fuel should not be used as a hostage. This is because it is safer to separate and store spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear plant as soon as possible.

Fires in spent nuclear fuel storage pools have been a common theme to justify the necessity of phasing out nuclear power. Spent nuclear fuel in nuclear plants is submerged in pools 12 meters deep. There has never been a fire worldwide. Yet, fears were stoked by claims that a fire in the spent nuclear fuel storage pool would contaminate half the country and force tens of millions of people to evacuate. It is unclear what anti-nuclear advocates, who claim to prioritize safety, have done for the safety of spent nuclear fuel over the past three years. Spent nuclear fuel is placed in storage containers and buried 500 meters underground in stable geological formations, surrounded by clay. There is no safer disposal method than this.

Temporary storage facilities are even safer than spent nuclear fuel storage pools. MACSTOR has a seismic resistance strength of 0.3g, equivalent to that of the latest nuclear power plants. It allows natural cooling, eliminating concerns about power loss, which is a vulnerability of nuclear plants. Spent nuclear fuel is stored in steel containers inside thick concrete buildings. One MACSTOR unit can store 24,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel. This amount can generate electricity for one million households for 10 years. The area of a soccer field can accommodate 25 MACSTOR units. In other words, a single soccer field stores the waste generated from producing electricity for all households in South Korea for 10 years. Even if MACSTOR construction is blocked, spent nuclear fuel remains in the nuclear plants. The safety issues raised by anti-nuclear groups are not resolved by this.

Finland is the only country currently constructing a permanent disposal site for spent nuclear fuel. Sweden and France have selected candidate sites. Even Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, has built both on-site temporary storage facilities and centralized storage facilities. The slow progress in constructing permanent disposal sites is less due to technical difficulties of long-term storage and more due to securing local acceptance for hosting the disposal sites. Many countries have commonly experienced severe opposition from anti-nuclear groups that disrupt local acceptance when disposal site construction is pursued.

If safety is the priority, there is no safer method than burying waste deep underground. If a disposal site cannot be used immediately, at least a temporary storage facility should be built to separate and store spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear plants. This will prevent any potential accidents claimed by anti-nuclear groups from spreading through spent nuclear fuel. This measure is not only for the operation of nuclear plants but also for safety.

The temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant has been operating without any problems for 28 years since its introduction in 1992. If safety is truly the concern, whether pro- or anti-nuclear, opposition should not be directed at expanding MACSTOR but rather at urging the construction of both MACSTOR and permanent disposal sites.

Jung Dong-wook, Professor, Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Chung-Ang University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.