Applications for Nuclear Waste Site to be Received from Tomorrow

The controversial location selection for a future nuclear waste treatment facility will start from the beginning.

The government announced last December that Wido in Buan would have priority over hosting the nuclear waste facility if a majority of Wido residents casts votes in favor of hosting the facility.

However, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy (MOCIE) announced a change on Wednesday that Buan in Jeolla province and other cities have become equally eligible for hosting the nuclear waste processing plant. Thus, the selection process for the nuclear facility has returned back to its initial stage.

The government decided to receive preliminary applications from local governments, including Buan, until September 15. To be eligible for the preliminary application, a local government will require the consent from over one-third of its residents between February 6 to May 31.

The Nuclear Waste Facility Site Selection Committee also decided to announce the final winner to host the facility by the end of December after reviewing final applications of local governments that will have conducted local residents’ vote by November 30.

The Nuclear Waste Facility will only include a low and intermediate-level radioactive waste repository along with a spent fuels repository and a high-level nuclear waste interim repository, according to the MOCIE.

“We decided not to build a high-level nuclear waste permanent repository in consideration of local residents’ concerns,” said Bae Sung-gi, a senior official of the MOCIE. However, as the MOCIE decided to build a non-permanent repository instead of its initially planned permanent repository, the government will have to build a permanent nuclear waste storage system at another place in the next 30 to 50 years.

In the meantime, the MOCIE announced that a local residents’ vote in Wido, which is to take place in February 14 organized by Wido residents opposing the hosting the nuclear facility, would not be legally binding regardless of the result.

Besides Buan, other cities, including Yeongkwang in South Jeolla province, Yeongdeok in North Gyeongsang province and Gochang in Gangwon province previously showed interest in hosting the facility.

Eun-Woo Lee libra@donga.com