Fate of Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor up in the air

Lee Un-chul, left, chairman of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC), speaks to decision-making panelists before starting a meeting on the fate of the country’s oldest nuclear reactor, the Wolsong-1, at the NSSC in downtown Seoul, Thursday. They failed to reach a consensus on the issue and decided to have a third round of talks on Feb. 26. / Yonhap

By Park Si-soo

The fate of Korea’s oldest nuclear reactor remains unclear after a nuclear policy setting commission failed to reach an agreement at a second round of talks on Thursday.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) had marathon talks with experts to decide whether to restart the 33-year-old Wolsong-1 reactor or tear it down.

The nine-member decision-making panel is comprised of two standing NSSC commissioners, three appointed by the government, two by the ruling party and two by the main opposition party.

The meeting started at 10 a.m. and continued for nearly 13 hours, but those present failed to reach a consensus because of safety issues. The panel agreed to hold a third round of talks on Feb. 26.

The Wolsong-1 reactor, in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, is the country’s first commercial nuclear reactor. It began operating in November 1982 and was shut down in November 2012 at the expiration of its 30-year lifespan.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power has spent 560 billion won ($509 million) replacing old parts and upgrading the reactor’s operating system trying to win NSSC approval to restart the reactor.

Investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspected the reactor in 2012 and found no critical problems with safety.

The commission’s approval would make the facility available until 2022. Its rejection would see Wolsong-1 become Korea’s first nuclear reactor to be demolished.

Korea has 23 nuclear reactors and they supply nearly 35 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption.

Dozens of anti-nuclear activists and people living near the reactor protested at the NSSC in central Seoul on Thursday, chanting slogans in opposition to restarting the reactor.

“I couldn’t sleep well for years due to safety concerns over the old reactor that could malfunction and cause a catastrophic accident,” said a protester from Gyeongju.

Many people are fearful of the reactor because of the deadly nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. Their worries intensified after an unidentified hacker got into the operating systems of three nuclear reactors in December, pledging to sabotage them unless the government stopped their operations.

Although the hacker’s threat turned out to be empty, the case has brought safety of domestic nuclear facilities into question and fueled anti-nuclear sentiment.

Experts are divided over the Wolsong-1’s lifespan extension.

Chung Bum-jin, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyung Hee University, backs the reactor’s extended use, saying expiration of the lifespan did not mean it should be closed.

“It was set when the reactor went operational,” he said. “Now we have advanced technologies with which we are able to keep it running without a problem.”

Seo Kyun-ryeol, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University, does not agree. He said a nuclear facility with an expired lifespan is bound to have a greater risk of future problems.