By Park Si-soo
The government announced a set of measures Tuesday to enhance the safety of nuclear reactors and eliminate corruption at atomic power plants following a series of unsavory scandals.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which oversees nuclear policy, said it will make greater efforts to make reactors safer to operate and tighten precautions against corrupt acts.
The move came after public confidence over the safety of nuclear power plants plunged dramatically from 71 percent in January 2010 to 34.8 percent at the end of last year, according to the ministry.
It said such a drop was partially caused by the nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. Yet many industry observers say the blame lies mostly with a series of malfunctions at nuclear reactors in recent months which were later proven to be linked with lax safety checks and corruption concerning maintenance work involving officials of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP).
The KHNP was publicly criticized in October after two nuclear reactors were confirmed to have used falsely certified components for the past 10 years. The stoppage of the reactors’ operations has seen the nation on the brink of unprecedented power outages since December and citizens and companies have been urged to undertake power saving campaigns.
The ministry said those responsible for the October incident will be “punished without mercy.“
“The fact that all the scandals and accidents at the KHNP have been made public by outside sources confirms that the KHNP’s own efforts to correct its mistakes are limited,” the ministry said concerning its reason for the government’s reform plan.
“But because the country's power supply structure requires it to maintain a certain level of nuclear power plants, the most urgent issue is to improve the safety of nuclear power plants and the people’s trust.”
To ensure the quality and authenticity of materials and parts, the government will immediately ban any independent purchase of parts by each power plant and require the KHNP to set up its own procurement office to lessen its dependence on contracted suppliers.
To improve the safety of existing nuclear reactors, the government will "significantly extend" the duration of the regular maintenance period from the current 30 days, it said.
It will also rewrite its manual to focus on finding the root cause of any mechanical problem at nuclear reactors as the focus currently remains on restarting the suspended reactors as quickly as possible by replacing any parts that caused problems.
Korea currently operates 23 nuclear reactors that supply about 30 percent of the nation's entire electricity consumption. It plans to build an additional 16 plants by 2030.