Currently, 24 nuclear reactors in 4 nuclear power plant sites are operating in Korea and spent fuels from these reactors are stored in the sites temporarily. The extremely high level and long-time scale radioactivity of HLW including spent fuels led to the idea of deep geological repositories in stable geological formations. The purpose of disposal is not only to isolate the high-level waste (HLW) from humans, but also to inhibit the transport of any leaked radioactive materials to the accessible environment. A preliminary R&D programs for spent fuels disposal as a high-level radioactive wastes was started in 1997 in KAERI. KAERI had developed standard disposal systems (Deep Geological Disposal: DGD) which consisted of engineered barrier and natural barrier for direct disposal of spent fuels in 2006 and for HLW from the pyro-processing of spent fuels in 2012. And now, engineering scale In-situ tests are carrying out in the small underground research laboratory which is called KURT (Kaeri Underground Research Tunnel). And also, an alternative concept (Deep Borehole Disposal: DBD) to the standard disposal concept (DGD) is being considered for HLW and long lived wastes. In this paper, the disposal concepts being considered for high level wastes including spent fuels and the related national policy in Korea were reviewed.
Twenty-four nuclear power plants, four CANDU reactors at Wolsong and 16 PWR reactors at the Kori, Younggwang, and Uljin sites, have now been operating in Korea, since the first commercial nuclear power plant at the Kori site was initiated in 1978. The spent fuels generated from these reactors are stored in the sites temporarily. A long-term R&D program for high-level waste (HLW), such as spent fuels, disposal technology development was launched in Korea in 1997. There have been active research activities for the development of a Korean standard disposal system for PWR spent fuels and CANDU spent fuels. The research studies for the development of the engineered barriers were carried out and the disposal canisters for PWR and CANDU spent fuels were designed. Based on the results from these studies, the concept for a Korean reference HLW disposal system was developed.
