Park Jin-hai primarily focuses on K-dramas, entertainment shows and actor interviews. Beyond that, she also pens articles covering the broader arts scene, with a particular emphasis on classical music, dance and various aspects of lifestyle. Since joining The Korea Times in 2013, she has made significant contributions in the realms of hallyu (Korean wave), industry news and international affairs.
Nuclear expert Han Pil-soon dies at 82
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Han Pil-soon
By Park Jin-hai
By Park Jin-hai
Han Pil-soon, former president of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), died of heart failure Sunday, according to his family. He was 82.
His memorial altar has been set up at St. Mary’s Hospital in southern Seoul. His remains will be buried at Daejeon National Cemetery on Thursday.
Born in Gangnam County, South Pyeongan Province (now North Korea), in 1933, Han majored in physics at Seoul National University and obtained a master’s degree at Illinois University. He also graduated from the Republic of Korea Air Force Academy.
Han returned to Korea in 1959 after completing his Ph.D. degree at the University of California at Los Angeles, and participated as a founding member of the Agency for Defense Development in 1970.
During this time, Han strived to produce parachutes, bulletproof helmets, grenades and Vulcan automatic cannons with domestic technologies.
Han, the “father” of Korean atomic energy, became involved with atomic energy in 1982, when he was appointed vice president of the Korean Energy Research Institute, a predecessor of the KAERI.
At the time, the government used “energy” instead of “atomic” in its name as it was wary of the U.S. government, while its annual budget was only 3 billion won, one-hundredth of the present total.
Despite criticism from both internal and external forces, he pushed ahead multiple projects to boost the country’s technical self-reliance in the atomic energy field.
Under the belief that “without technology, you are destined to be slaves,” he tenaciously worked on developing nuclear reactors for research purposes and light-water reactors.
He served as the president of KAERI for seven years from 1984 and succeeded in designing nuclear power plants and producing nuclear fuel with its own technology.
In his inauguration speech, he said, “The only way for a developing country to reach nuclear power technical self-reliance is to take part in commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) construction projects. We have no money, time and experienced manpower to bring it up from scratch.” That was the beginning of a long road in pushing KAERI to take responsibility in developing NPP reactor systems and initial core design technologies, which it assumed by taking a prime contractor’s role in the Younggwang Nuclear project.
In that particular project, developed light-water reactors were applied to the Younggwang No. 3 and No. 4 nuclear power plants in South Jeolla Province, which would serve as the prototypes for the Advance Power Reactor 1400, the third-generation nuclear power plant model that Korea exported to the United Arab Emirate in 2009.
Having contributed regular columns to local newspaper The JoongAng Daily between 1999 and 2000, Han later wrote a book entitled, “From Grenades to Nuclear Reactors” in 2000.