Korea’s nuclear facilities secure safety from any anticipating earthquake
Korea’s nuclear facilities secure safety from any anticipating earthquake
  • Lee Kyung-min
  • 승인 2011.06.25 11:33
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Singori Nuclear Power Plant

 

Korea's nuclear facilities were confirmed to be safely secured from any anticipating earthquakes and tidal waves on the Korean peninsula.

Following the massive earthquake, which battered Japan on March 11, the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) carried out safety checks on its 21 nuclear reactors, including the country's Gori nuclear facility during the period from March 23 to April 30.

"According to the results of safety checks conducted by 73 government and private nuclear experts, the nation's nuclear reactors have been confirmed to be safe from any anticipated earthquakes and tidal waves," a KHNP spokesman said.

"However, KHNP is actively pushing for 50 short- and long-term measures to secure the safety of nuclear reactors, regardless of the worst earthquakes or tidal waves imaginable, in six fields," he said.

"We also confirmed the safety of the No. 1 reactor at the Gori nuclear power plant in Busan.

On April 12, the No. 1 Gori reactor suffered from a temporary shutdown after a circuit-breaker burned out because of an electrical overload. It was the first malfunction of the facility since 2005.

"The Gori No. 1 reactor is one of the best-performing nuclear facilities in the world and the circuit-breaker malfunction was a minor accident," said the spokesman, adding that the circuit-breaker at issue was supplied by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's primary shipbuilder.

"As a result, KHNP has decided to propel additional disaster prevention steps, including the expansion of an environmental radioactive monitoring station as well as securing enough protective radiation drugs and gas masks," he stressed.

KHNP will also permit residents living near nuclear power plants and members of private environmental monitoring organizations to witness the safety inspection procedure if they make a request to do so, he said.

 

 

Safety of structures against earthquake, tidal waves

Ulchin Nuclear Site

 

The existing nuclear power plants in operation were designed to resist earthquakes as high as 6.5 on the Richter scale and the new design of nuclear power plants, including the Singori Nuclear Power Plants No. 1 and 2, were designed to resist earthquakes reaching  6.9.

"In addition, to secure safety of nuclear power plants, KHNP will improve a system which can automatically stop the operation of nuclear reactors that detect earthquakes exceeding a certain scale," he said.

"We will also review the safety of the country's nuclear power plants against the biggest possible earthquake to have ever occurred on the Korean peninsula by 2012," he said.

Aware that the possibility is very slim that major structures of nuclear power plants, including emergency power systems and safety facilities, would be submerged due to large-scale tidal waves, he said, "KHNP, will raise the height of coastal barriers of the Gori nuclear power plant to 10 meters by the first half of 2012 in order to effectively cope with the worst possible case."

To prevent emergency power systems and major safety facilities from being submerged, KHNP also plans to establish watertight doors and waterproof drainage pumps at relevant structures by 2014.

"At the same time, we will carry out inspections and studies anticipating the biggest possible tidal waves that could occur around the country by 2012 and come out with the proper measures," he said.

 

 

Steps to effectively cope with submersion of power system

Younggwang Nuclear Power Plant

 

Under the assumption of a worst case scenario where the sites of nuclear power plants are submerged and power supply from a number of power plants are stopped, KHNP is moving to employ 11 additional steps to secure safety of the country's nuclear facilities.

"First of all, we plan to secure a mobile emergency generator and a storage battery at each  nuclear power plant site by 2014. With the worst case, being the shutdown of many nuclear power plants, taken into consideration, we will also improve the design standards for an alternative emergency diesel power generator by 2014," the spokesman said.

"In preparation of  a nuclear meltdown due to a malfunction of the cooling system, we will take six steps, including the establishment of advanced passive-type hydrogen removal equipment at all nuclear power plants and ventilation or vacuum equipment to prevent an excessive pressure hike in containment by 2013," he said.

KHNP has also decided to increase the education hours for operators of nuclear power plants from the present eight hours a year to more than 10 hours to increase their ability to cope with possible serious accidents.

"To detect radioactivity at an early stage, in case of an accident at nuclear power plants, KHNP will expand the number of environmental radioactivity monitoring stations from the present 71, to 120 stations across the country," the spokesman said.

In order to cope with a possible accidental radioactive leak in a neighboring country, KHNP will also prepare a joint manual between relevant government agencies and finalize each agency's manual through negotiations by the end of this year.

"In addition, KHNP will strengthen international cooperation for nuclear safety. In the case of an occurrence of a nuclear accident in a nearby country, it plans to exchange relevant information about the accident and dispatch domestic experts to the country for joint investigations, study and countermeasures through diplomatic channels," he said.

Related to this, it organized a Korea-Japan experts' meeting on April 12-13 for nuclear technology assistance and collected relevant information related to the Fukushima disaster.

Apart from this, KHNP dispatched an expert to the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization in May to discuss safety issues related to the crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan.

It will be the first time experts from the two countries have met to exchange ideas since the crisis flared a month ago following the massive earthquake and tsunami.

The meeting focused on safety management, measurement and monitoring of radiation from nuclear power plants and prevention of food contamination, the spokesman said.

 


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