Among the usual commercials for beer, noodles and cars on South Korean TV, one item stands in marked contrast.

A short film by a government advisory body carries a stark message: The nation faces a crisis over storing its spent nuclear fuel after running reactors for decades.

The world's fifth-largest user of nuclear power has around 70 percent — or nearly 9,000 tons — of its used fuel stacked in temporary storage pools originally intended to hold it for five or six years, with some sites due to fill by the end of 2016.