The southern port city of Busan will use a desalination plant for tap water as a research hub to demonstrate new desalination technologies and localize parts.

The biggest desalination plant in South Korea has been virtually inactive since 2016 due to protests by residents. The reverse osmosis desalination plant located in Gijang, a coastal town near Busan, was built in 2014 through a 200 billion won ($82.9 million) project to produce 45,000 tons of tap water daily.

However, the plant’s operation came to a stalemate when Gijang residents claimed that seawater could have been contaminated by a nearby nuclear power complex.

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