SOUTH KOREA TO APPROVE NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE SOUTH OF SEOUL AS THE NIMBY MENTALITY GETS SHELVED FOR SAFETY SAKE AS LOCAL WASTE STORAGE OF ITS NUCLEAR FACILITY IS AT CAPACITY–AS IT ONLY TOOK 28 YEARS TO APPROVE–STORAGE TRANSFER TO BEGIN BY END OF 2014–SOUNDS LIKE A WAKE UP CALL TO THE US OWN NUCLEAR STORAGE DEBACLE PERPETRATED BY DEMOCRATS IN OFFICE FROM THE LIKES OF HARRY REID (D-NV) WHO HAS CALLED NIMBY OF THE YUCCA COMPLETED FACILITY AS HE ALONE WITH THE POTUS BHO CHAOS HAVE STIFLED THE GROWTH OF CLEAN ENERGY AND SAFETY IN THE US–ARE THESE PEOPLE IN POWER ABOUT SAFETY OF AMERICAN CITIZENS OR OUT FOR AN AGENDA OF CONTROL WAITING FOR CHAOS BEFORE ACTING AS NEW TECHNOLOGY IN NUCLEAR SAFETY ARE HELD BACK BY THE CURMUDGEON IN POWER

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission on Thursday authorized the operation of a storage facility for low- and medium-level radioactive waste in Gyeongju, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The nation's first nuclear waste disposal facility will go into operation by the end of this year at the earliest, 28 years after Korea began to push for the construction of such a facility.

The operation of the permanent storage facility carries great significance, given that Seoul had to change its candidate site as many as nine times amid fierce protests by residents and anti-nuclear activists.

Construction of the disposal site, which can store 100,000 drums of low- and medium-level radioactive waste underground, was completed in June after seven years, but its operation has been delayed pending the nuclear inspection body's safety assessment. The facility, which was designed to resist an earthquake of up to magnitude 6.5, could store up to 800,000 drums of waste if its expansion plan proceeds on schedule.

The completion of such a disposal facility, which is not common even globally, will provide great leeway for the nation's nuclear power plants, which have wrestled with the near saturation of their temporary storage spaces.
The facility also deserves credit in that it will set a good example to the NIMBY (not in my back yard) syndrome entrenched across the nation, although there have been massive state subsidies and regional support programs.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2014/12/202_169805.html