SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said on Tuesday that it was turning off two nuclear power reactors and delaying the scheduled start of operations at another two after its inspectors discovered that the reactors used components whose safety certificates had been fabricated.
South Korea’s nuclear power industry has been plagued by a series of forced shutdowns, corruption scandals and mechanical failures in recent years, undermining public confidence in atomic energy even as the country’s dependence on it for electricity is expected to grow.
An anonymous whistle-blower led government investigators to uncover the latest problem, in which control cables that had failed to pass a safety test were given fake certificates and supplied to four reactors, the country’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said on Tuesday. The control cable is used to send electronic signals to a reactor’s control system in the event of an accident.
The commission halted operations at two reactors on Tuesday so the problematic cables could be replaced. The planned start-up of two other reactors — one under a routine maintenance shutdown and the other a newly built reactor waiting for operational approval — will be delayed for the same reason.
South Korea has 23 reactors, and Tuesday’s decision means that 10 reactors are temporarily offline for safety concerns, maintenance and other reasons, raising the risk of power shortages in the summer, when electricity consumption peaks.
The two reactors shut down on Tuesday are on the southeastern coast of South Korea, and each has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. The recurring scandals have damaged the reputation of South Korea’s nuclear power industry, which supplies one-third of the country’s electricity needs and aspires to become a global exporter of reactors.
Despite increasing public concern, however, the government remained determined to push ahead with its aggressive nuclear power program; by 2030, the country plans to add 16 more reactors. More
I predicted this in 2007 when speaking to a highly placed individual working in a states nuclear administration. Unfortunately, it was inevitable, given the greed for ever greater profits, from the corporate world. Editor
