nuclear-news

South Koreans becoming unsure of nuclear power safety

 SK Sees Nuclear Plant Jitters Ahead Of Summit, WSJ, March 16, 2012,  A little over a week before South Korea hosts the 50-nation Nuclear Security Summit, the government is trying to reassure the public over the safety of nuclear power following a blackout at a nuclear plant on the south coast and a public backlash about alleged cover-up attempts by officials.

The Feb. 9 blackout at the 35-year-old Gori-1 plant—the oldest nuclear
facility in the country–in Busan lasted 12 minutes, during which an
emergency back-up diesel generator also failed.   The power failure
was caused by an error by an engineer during a routine safety check.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, which oversees the operation of the
country’s 21 nuclear power plants, didn’t comply with safety
guidelines and failed to make an immediate report to Nuclear Safety
and Security Commission. By law, nuclear accidents must be reported to
the commission within 15 minutes.

The accident remained unknown for more than a month before a Busan
City Council member overheard a conversation between plant engineers
in a local restaurant and made a formal request to verify what had
happened. On Tuesday, news of the power failure became public.

The incident shocked South Koreans, who are well aware that a power
failure led to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daichi power
plant in Japan last year. Feeding into the fears are safety concerns
about the aging Gori 1 plant, which was set to be decommissioned in
2007 but had its life span extended by another 10 years after a safety
check-up.

Kim Jong-shin, chief executive of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, said on
Wednesday that officials at the plant are worried that the accident
might add to pressure to close the plant and, by extension, to cut
back on Korea’s dependence on nuclear power. Currently, 31% of the
country’s power supply comes from nuclear plants, the second largest
power source after coal. The government plans to increase the
dependency to 59% by 2030 by adding 19 additional plants…..
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2012/03/16/sk-sees-nuclear-plant-jitters-ahead-of-summit/?mod=google_news_blog

March 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, South Korea