Korea's high-level nuclear waste committee marks first year with site-screening rules

The environment ministry said Sunday that South Korea's committee overseeing high-level radioactive waste management has completed its first year of operation, having put in place the decision-making structure and site-screening procedures needed to resolve a decades-old national problem.

The High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Committee, chaired by Kim Hyun-kwon, was launched on Sept. 26, 2025, under the special act on high-level radioactive waste management. Kim framed the year as groundwork for harder decisions ahead.

"The past year was a time for building the institutions and foundations to solve a national challenge; from now on, we must create concrete solutions, one by one, that citizens and local communities can trust," he said.

"High-level radioactive waste management is not a problem that can be solved as the burden of any one region or generation, so we will put scientific safety first while building social trust through sufficient dialogue and transparent disclosure of information," he added.

The committee held its first full meeting in February and has convened eight times through September, appointing 35 experts recommended by 25 academic societies, associations, research institutes and civil society groups to four expert subcommittees covering siting, storage, transport and disposal, and communication. Members serve two-year terms.

In April, at its third meeting, the committee approved a site-suitability survey plan for the management facility, setting out how the survey and evaluation will be conducted. It has also begun work on criteria for excluding unsuitable areas in advance, so that regions are ruled out on objective geological and scientific grounds rather than confirming the suitability of a site chosen first.

The committee has also sought input from stakeholders at existing nuclear plant sites, and in June it co-hosted an international forum on radioactive waste safety in Seoul with the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency. Officials and residents from host communities in Japan, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Finland shared their experience of the site-selection process.

By the end of this year the committee plans to complete the third basic plan for high-level radioactive waste management and finish screening the entire country for unsuitable areas. It is also preparing support measures for regions that take part, ahead of bidding for candidate sites for basic surveys that will begin next year.