Nuclear Waste Looms As Challenge in Asia

With royal tombs and a history dating back 1,000 years to the Shilla Kingdom, Gyeongju is a cradle of Korean civilization. But it’s about to get a tomb of a different type.

A hillside bunker overlooking the Sea of Japan is to become one of Asia’s first permanent nuclear dump sites, ending South Korea’s 19-year quest to deal with low- and medium-level waste such as contaminated clothing and old parts from its 20 nuclear power plants.
It’s costing the government nearly $320 million in subsidies to the town of 300,000 for voting to accept the dump, and it doesn’t even begin to address the country’s real problem – 6,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel with hundreds of thousands of years to live and nowhere to go.

Forbes