Korean labs win deal to treat fusion reactor waste

South Korean laboratories have secured a deal to draw up plans for optimal radioactive treatment and waste storage for an experimental fusion reactor being built in France, the government said Monday.

The 274,500 euro ($368,800) technical consultation contract calls for detailed studies to be conducted on how best to collect and assort waste and determine the safest way to move such waste from the reactor to special holding areas, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said.

Korea Power Engineering Co. and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute won the deal from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) authorities and will be tasked with determining the cost of disposal, including packaging of contaminated materials, and the best way to treat both solid and liquid waste. Such materials must be stored for up to 20 years in so-called hot cell buildings.

ITER uses naturally abundant tritium and deuterium to release helium and neutron particles that effectively allow the creation of an artificial sun on Earth. Such a system could possible provide a limitless supply of energy, according to Yonhap News.