nuclear-news

New report on safety dangers at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear power plant

Telegraph 20th April 2018 Shortcuts on safety standards, poor maintenance and disdain for operational
protocols at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear power plant are putting 100
million people across north-east Asia in “mortal danger”, according to a
new report.

Authored by Oleg Shcheka, a professor of physics and chemistry
who is based in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, the study
suggests the North Korean regime’s need for energy is increasing the
likelihood of an accident similar to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

North Korea has been attempting to shift to nuclear energy since the 1960s but
progress has been hampered by a lack of funding and international sanctions
designed to inhibit the regime’s nuclear weapons programme.

The Soviet Union helped to construct the first 2-megawatt reactor a t Yongbyon in
1965, while North Korean scientists have since probably developed the
skills and equipment required to build a facility similar to a Soviet-era
RBMK-1000 light water graphite reactor – the same type that was in use at
Chernobyl.

And while a relatively simple design, the political pressure to
“crank up more power to generate electricity inevitably leads to an
increased risk of disasters associated with human errors as well as
imperfect operation and protection systems”, Mr Shcheka wrote in the study,
published on the 38 North website operated by the US-Korea Institute at
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/20/north-koreas-nuclear-reactor-puts-100-million-people-mortal/

April 21, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized