As the Board of Audit and Inspection decided that there are limitations to comprehensively judging the feasibility of early closure in the results of the'Feasibility of Decision on Early Closure of Wolsong Unit 1'on the 20th, Wolseong Unit 1 is expected to go through the dismantling procedure as scheduled.



Wolseong Unit 1 was approved for permanent suspension by the Nuclear Safety Committee on December 24 last year in accordance with the Nuclear Safety Act.



Currently, both fuel and coolant have been removed from the reactor.



According to the Nuclear Safety Act, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the main entity of which it operates, must fill out an application for dismantling approval within 5 years from the date of permanent suspension of the reactor facility.



The decommissioning approval application includes the decommissioning plan and method, safety assessment, environmental impact assessment, and radioactive waste management.



An official from KHNP said, "We have not yet completed an application for approval of dissolution, and we have not specified the schedule."



KHNP prepares a final application after collecting the opinions of the residents on the draft application for dismantling approval and submits it to the ROK Committee.



Afterwards, the Yuan Ahn committee verifies the suitability of the decommissioning plan through advice from advanced overseas companies and evaluation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and then decides whether to approve it.



After approval for dismantling is granted, procedures such as full dismantling of facilities and restoration of the site will continue.



The progress of the site restoration, the radioactivity of the final site, and the completion of the dismantling such as the nuclear reactor facilities before and after the dismantling are reported to the Korean National Security Agency again.



Lastly, when the Korean National Security Council reviews the relevant contents and terminates the operation permit for Wolsong Unit 1, all procedures are completed.



It is expected that it will take 15 years or more to complete all this process.



Based on the'Medium-Term Management Goals' (2020-2024) set by KHNP last year, development of a decommissioning plan in 2020, decontamination decontamination plan in 2021, waste treatment facility construction plan in 2022, residents' opinions in 2023, and final decommissioning plan in 2024 And so on.



However, Han Suwon explained that such plans can be modified according to changes in the business environment at home and abroad.



Dismantling costs are expected to cost more than 800 billion won.



The cost of dismantling domestic nuclear power plants is set at KRW 8129 billion per unit in accordance with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy notification.



An official from KHNP said, "It is difficult to estimate the cost reliably as both the light water reactor and the heavy water reactor are not actually decommissioning," he said. "We plan to calculate more detailed costs for the dismantling of Wolsong Unit 1".



KHNP has secured 51 of 58 technologies required for nuclear power plant decommissioning, and plans to complete all development by next year.



Looking at the previous case of Kori Unit 1, a plan for dismantling came out in June of this year, three years after it was permanently suspended on June 19, 2017.



KHNP held a public hearing for two months to collect opinions and plans to submit a final draft to the original bill at the end of this month.



Decommissioning is completed by the end of 2032.



Wolseong Unit 1 is the second nuclear power plant in Korea after Kori Unit 1 and the first heavy water reactor type nuclear power plant.



Construction began on June 15, 1975 in Naari, Yangnam-myeon, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and began operation on November 21, 1982.



Following completion on April 22, 1983, commercial operation began.



On November 20, 2012, when the design life (30 years) expired, the operation was stopped, but in February 2015, the company received a permit to continue the extended operation for 10 years and resumed power generation.



Since then, due to the government's policy of eliminating nuclear power, the KHNP Board of Directors decided to close it early on June 16, 2018, and on December 24, 2019, the Korean National Security Council confirmed a permanent suspension.



(Photo = Provided by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Yonhap News)