Resumption of Radioactive Waste Transport from Daejeon to Gyeongju after 3 Years

Intermediate and low-level radioactive waste temporarily stored at the Daejeon Nuclear Research Institute is being transported to the Gyeongju Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility. Source=Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute's shipment of intermediate and low-level radioactive waste (hereinafter radioactive waste) stored to the Gyeongju Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (hereinafter disposal facility) will resume. This comes three years after the shipment was halted in 2018 due to radionuclide analysis errors.

According to Daejeon City on the 8th, the Gyeongju disposal facility's Private Environmental Monitoring Committee recently decided to resume the acceptance of radioactive waste at the '40th Extraordinary Meeting.'

Accordingly, the Atomic Energy Research Institute plans to transfer up to 240 drums of radioactive waste to the Gyeongju disposal facility by the end of this year. Currently, the institute stores 21,103 drums of general radioactive waste.

Previously, in December 2017, the institute discovered radionuclide analysis errors in 2,111 drums out of 2,600 drums intended to be moved to Gyeongju, leading to a complete suspension of shipment operations until recently.

In this regard, the city has repeatedly visited central government agencies such as the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission to obtain commitments for recurrence prevention measures and requested cooperation to resume shipments.

Considering that the Atomic Energy Research Institute is located just a few kilometers from residential complexes in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, and that recent consecutive safety negligence incidents have increased anxiety among nearby residents, efforts were made to support the shipment of radioactive waste.

Additionally, during this process, the institute established a quality management system by introducing an advanced management system to meet the recurrence prevention implementation standards set by the Gyeongju region's Private Environmental Monitoring Committee.

Heo Tae-jung, Mayor of Daejeon City, stated, “We will focus on promptly transferring the radioactive waste stored in the region to Gyeongju and on establishing laws and systems related to nuclear safety.”

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