Seoul restarts aged nuclear reactor despite safety concerns

The government decided Monday to restart an aged nuclear reactor that recently underwent months-long scrutiny over its safety, amid looming signs of a power shortage due to a record heat wave.

Operation of the Reactor-1 at Gori Nuclear Power Plant in Busan was resumed earlier in the day with the reactor expected to reach its full generation capacity on Friday, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

"We are relieved the Gori reactor was restarted," Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo told a press briefing.

The 578-megawatt reactor, located some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was manually shut down on March 12 after the Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. belatedly reported a major safety breach during a regular maintenance check the previous month, when the reactor, along with its backup generator, temporarily lost power.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission approved a restart of the reactor early last month after a near four-month safety inspection, during which an experts team from the International Atomic Energy Agency also took a non-mandatory look at the reactor and confirmed its safety.

However, the reactor had remained shut down amid widespread public concerns over safety of the reactor whose initial 30-year lifespan ran out but was extended by 10 years in 2008.

"Despite the approval from the safety commission, the government delayed the restart of the reactor for over a month, considering concerns held by residents from near the Gori plant," the minister said.

"I believe there is no problem with the (reactor's) safety. From the beginning, it was a matter of how safe people felt."

The sudden restart of the reactor that could supply nearly 0.5 percent of total electricity consumption in Korea was apparently prompted, at least in part, by the possibility of a power shortage during the hot summer season, though the minister said the decision was not made in haste.

The country's electricity reserve levels fell below 2 million kilowatts on Monday, far below the 4 million kilowatt level that is considered safe.

"We are not restarting the reactor in haste. If we wanted to restart it quickly, we would've done so a month ago," Hong said.

Korea currently has 23 operational reactors, supplying about 30 percent of its total electricity consumption. (Yonhap)