By Park Jae-hyuk
More nuclear energy scientists and engineers are exiting the country to work for foreign companies as the Moon Jae-in administration pursues controversial “nuclear-free” energy policies, an opposition party lawmaker said Tuesday.
Rep. Jung You-sub of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party said the increase was notable in the past few years. Fourteen workers left for the United Arab Emirates between January 2017 and August 2018, after quitting their jobs at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), KEPCO Engineering & Construction (KEPCO E&C) and KEPCO KPS.
From 2015 to 2016, only three workers moved to the Middle Eastern country from the state-run enterprises.
The Korean workers joined Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and Nawah Energy in the U.A.E., the country which has been increasing the number of nuclear power plants on its soil.
In particular, 12 retirees among the 14 who went abroad from 2017 to 2018 had worked for KEPCO E&C, which designs nuclear power plants.
KHNP operates the plants, while KEPCO KPS is in charge of their maintenance.
Given that the lawmaker surveyed the retired workers by making personal phone calls to them, the number of nuclear experts who joined overseas companies may be bigger.
According to industry officials, one of the retirees who began working for a UAE company in 2017 said 20 Korean nuclear experts have become his colleagues since then.
“The government has denied a possible exodus of human resources, but nuclear experts have already begun leaving the country,” Jung said. “If the trend persists, the industry's supply chain will collapse and the nation's competitiveness in nuclear power technologies will wither.”
Concerns are also growing over possible outflow of technologies as China seeks to hire Korean nuclear experts.
“When I visited China a few months ago, I had an opportunity to see a controller that China uses for its nuclear power plants. China's controller was inferior to Korea's,” said Whang Joo-ho, professor of nuclear engineering at Kyung Hee University. “Manpower is necessary for technological improvement, so China's demand for Korean experts will grow further.”
Against this backdrop, students are also reluctant to major in nuclear engineering.
According to Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), only five students decided to major in nuclear engineering this year.
Before 2017, more than 20 KAIST students had annually selected nuclear engineering as their major.
Chung-Ang University's School of Energy Systems Engineering also had to meet its student enrollment quota this year with students who did not choose nuclear engineering as their first preference.
It took the measure as the number of students who want to major in nuclear engineering dropped sharply.