World Nuclear Waste Report 2019 세계 핵폐기물 보고서 2019
The first edition of the World Nuclear Waste Report has been published in 2019 by a team of European experts under the leadership of former Member of European Parliament, Ms. Rebecca Harms. Besides several thematic chapters dealing with classifications, quantities of waste, environmental and health risks stemming from it, waste management concepts, and the involved costs, Chapter 7 of the report includes eight country case studies on the growing challenge of nuclear waste, with a geographical focus on European countries and the United States.
This publication is a translation of this country case studies section. It attempts to spark a debate in South Korea on the complexities of dealing with nuclear waste. Indeed, nuclear power plants and nuclear waste have been terms of fear and horror to many in South Korea. For the last decade since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, many civil organisations, experts and citizens have denounced the South Korean government's continued dependence on, and management, and development of nuclear power plants but to no avail.
This translation is a collaborative effort of the Institute for Green Transformation (IGT) in Seoul and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Hong Kong. We extend our special gratitude to the translator Jin Young Choi, the reviewers Dr. Soo Jin Kim, Dr. Yujin Jung and Dr. Kwanghee Yeom and to Jinkyu Choi for layout design.
It is our hope that this report is useful for Korean experts, civil society, and policy makers dealing with nuclear energy and nuclear waste matters. Adding a dedicated chapter on nuclear waste in Korean is envisaged for the next edition. In that regard, all comments and recommendations by readers to the editors are most welcome.
For more info, visit: https://worldnuclearwastereport.org/
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Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Origins and classification
- Types of waste: the nuclear fuel chain
- Uranium mining, milling, processing and fuel fabrication
- Nuclear fission (fuel irradiation)
- Management of spent fuel
- Reactor (and fuel chain facility) decommissioning
- Waste quantities and activity
- Classification systems and categories
- The IAEA classification
- The EU classification
- Examples of national classifications
- Summary
3. Quantities of waste
- Reporting obligations
- Waste quantities along the supply chain
- Uranium mining and fuel fabrication
- Operational waste
- Spent nuclear fuel
- Decommissioning waste
- Estimated waste quantities along the supply chain
- Reported waste quantities under the Joint Convention
- Uranium mining and fuel fabrication
- Low- and intermediate-level waste
- Spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste
- Summary
4. Risks for the environment and human health
- Radiation risks of nuclear waste
- Risks from uranium mining, mine tailings, enrichment, and fuel fabrication
- Health risks from exposures to uranium
- Uranium mining
- Uranium mine tailings
- Risks from operation
- Risks from gases, liquids and solid waste
- Risks to nuclear workers
- Risks from spent nuclear fuel
- Risks of spent fuel in pools
- Risks from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel
- Fissile materials
- Mixed oxide fuel (MOX)
- Decommissioning risks
- Continued radionuclide emissions from decommissioned reactors
- Decommissioning vs operational exposures
- Summary
5. Waste management concepts
- Historical background
- The context of nuclear waste management
- Management concepts for nuclear waste
- Disposal concepts
- Host rocks
- LILW-repositories
- HLW-repositories
- Deep borehole disposal
- Interim strategies: storage
- Interim storage
- Extended storage
- Summary
6. Costs and financing
- The nature of the funding systems for decommissioning, storage, and disposal
- Basic liability for decommissioning and waste management
- Overview and nature of the funds
- Accumulation of the funds
- Cost estimations and experiences
- Cost estimation methodologies
- Decommissioning costs
- Disposal costs
- Financing schemes
- Financing schemes for decommissioning
- Financing schemes for interim storage
- Financing schemes for disposal
- Integrated financing schemes
- Summary