Decommissioning Of Kori-1 Could Take Over 15 Years, South Korean Media Say

25 Oct (NucNet): The decommissioning of South Korea’s permanently shut down Kori-1 nuclear unit near Busan is estimated to cost 719.4 billion won (KRW) (€543.2m, $639.5m) and could take over 15 years to complete, local media said, quoting a parliamentary report. The Yonhap news agency said state-run operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corpopration (KHNP) has to submit a decommissioning plan for the unit within five years to the ministry of trade, energy and industry, which will issue a notification of the associated costs. Yonhap said the cost of Kori-1’s decommissioning was estimated at KRW 643.7bn in 2014 and according to the energy ministry, KHNP has set aside KRW 583.6bn for this purpose as of December 2016. According to Yonhap, a KHNP speaker said they aimed to set up a reserve fund by 2022, with the amount being subject to possible changes, depending on the course of the decommissioning process. Kori-1, a 576-MW pressurised water reactor, is South Korea’s oldest unit and the only one in permanent shutdown. It started commercial operation in April 1978 and was shut down on 18 June 2017, 40 years after achieving first criticality. South Korea has 24 reactor units in commercial operation, providing almost a third of the country’s electricity.