South Korea said it will double the height of sea walls protecting its oldest nuclear reactor to quell unease about the risks of atomic power, drawing on the lessons of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
"Who could have imagined a worst-case scenario like Fukushima," said Chang Soon Heung, a nuclear scientist at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who advised the government on safety after radiation leaks in Japan. "We couldn't remain satisfied with current requirements. Citizens' expectations for safety standards are high."
South Korea, which aims to generate more than half its electricity from nuclear energy, faces calls from opposition lawmakers to decommission the oldest reactor and stop building new ones. Residents in the town of Samcheok last month reversed course on a bid to build reactors in their community while more than 120 schools in the region surrounding Seoul closed on April 7 on concern that radiation from Japan could contaminate rain.
State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., which operates the nation's four nuclear power stations, will lead a 5-year, 1 trillion won ($922 million) safety upgrade, Lee Ju Ho, the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, said on May 6.
Walls protecting the Kori No. 1 reactor, which sits about 5.8 meters (19 feet) above sea level and began operation in 1978, will be raised to more than 4.2 meters, from the current 1.7 meters, Minister Lee said. The wave that pummeled the Fukushima plant on March 11 was as high as 15 meters.
Mobile Generators
Reactors at South Korea's three other nuclear power stations, Yeonggwang, Uljin and Wolseong, are already protected against 10-meter tsunamis. Lee said South Korea will also employ mobile generators to help avoid the situation in Japan, where power was lost when backup units at the Fukushima plant were flooded. "The nuclear accident in Japan has motivated us to take preemptive action," Lee said. "We can significantly reinforce safety levels."
South Korea's nuclear reactors have been built to withstand magnitude 6.5 earthquakes, assuming the epicenter is directly underneath them, and new ones are being designed to handle temblors of 7.0, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The strongest earthquakes recorded in South Korea were magnitude 5.2 and took place in 1978 and 2004, according to the Korea Meteorological Agency. South Korea aims to generate 59 percent of its power from nuclear energy by 2030, from about 33 percent now, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Local Residents
As many as 97 percent of the residents of Samcheok, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Seoul, signed a petition before the earthquake in Japan supporting the local government's bid for a nuclear power station to be built in the community, according to Lee Joung Soo, an official in the local government's strategy and planning division.
Explosions and radiation leaks from the plant in Japan changed that, said Byun Hyung Cheol, a 52-year-old farmer who grows paprika in greenhouses and rice in paddy fields about four kilometers away from the plot where a plant housing two 1,400- megawatt reactors would be built if his town was chosen ahead of two other communities being considered.
"The leakage of radioactive materials in Japan brought home the horrifying realization that it could happen here next," he said in a telephone interview on April 18.
Candle-Light Vigils
Byun said banners festooned around town supporting the bid had disappeared and been replaced by opposition marches and candle-light vigils opposing the plant, even though people knew the nuclear power industry could bring better paying jobs. Four reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai- Ichi nuclear plant were damaged by hydrogen blasts after a magnitude-9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami knocked out backup power and cooling systems.
"We didn't know or think seriously about the dangers of nuclear plants until the news of the Fukushima accident," said Bae Jung Kyoo, who ran a kindergarten in Samcheok for 20 years, said in an April 17 telephone interview that he and his family will leave if a plant is built. A checkup on South Korea's 21 reactors completed last week didn't detect any problems, Minister Lee told reporters in Seoul on May 6. The 587-megawatt Kori No. 1 reactor resumed operations May 6 after it was halted on April 12 because of an electrical fault. Power deliveries were scheduled to begin on May 8.
The cost of generating electricity from nuclear power in South Korea is 36 won per kilowatt-hour, compared with 60 won from coal, 128 won from liquefied natural gas, and 147 won from oil, based on input costs in 2009, according to the Korea Energy Economics Institute. "For a resource-scarce country like ours, there's no alternative to nuclear power," Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong Kyung told lawmakers on April 12.
Source: Apec-vc
