NEAR SURFACE DISPOSAL FACILITIES

摘要

N.K. BANSAL (India): I think that in near surface disposal the time has come to consolidate the gains and experience of the past 30-50 years. This could be one way of developing public confidence with regard to deep geological disposal. K..X LEE (Republic of Korea): I should like to describe the situation in my country regarding near surface disposal. We have 20 nuclear power plants in operation, meeting about 40% of our electricity demand, but we do not yet have a low level waste disposal site. For some 20 years we have tried to reach a decision on a site, but we have had a succession of failures. The Government has therefore introduced a more transparent process whereby local governments have to obtain endorsements by residents through popular referenda before offering to host a site. We now have four candidate sites, and it is possible that a decision will be reached before the end of November. Referenda on the four sites will be held on the same day, the requirement being that over half of those entitled to participate should vote in favour of the proposal The final determination will be based on a combination of geological suitability criteria and citizen approval.