By Park Si-soo
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday that Korea’s aging Gori-1 nuclear reactor was safe, concluding its much-anticipated investigation after a shutdown at the plant earlier this year triggered concerns.
While the power failure didn’t lead to any meaningful damage, the public’s uneasiness over the condition of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant only grew after it was found that engineers had tried to cover up the mishap.
The IAEA announcement failed to convince environmentalists and local residents, who vowed to continue protests and call on the government to close down the reactor.
After reviewing the facilities for eight days, the eight IAEA inspectors, led by Miroslav Lipar, the head of the IAEA’s industrial safety department, said they found no problems with the emergency generator used at Gori-1 and said other systems were working properly as well.
However, they provided no detailed explanation as to why the same generator stayed idle during the 12-minute blackout in February.
Gori-1, built in 1978 near Busan, briefly lost power on Feb. 9 and the emergency generator failed to kick in. The power cut caused cooling water to stop circulating. Five senior engineers, including a 55-year-old chief engineer, were charged in May with trying to cover up the power failure that was obviously potentially dangerous.
Korean investigators also found that the generator was left unfixed several days after the incident.
The public uproar that followed eventually led the IAEA to step in at the request of the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP).
The IAEA inspectors praised the plant for successfully meeting international safety requirements, strengthened following the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan in March last year. But the mission did criticize the KHNP for allowing a lax culture of safety and leadership over the cover-up scandal.
Civic activists and locals continued to demand the shutdown of Gori-1 and questioned the credibility of the IAEA inspection.
“We cannot trust the result,” three environmentalist groups said in a joint statement. “Four out of eight IAEA inspectors are engaged in the nuclear power industry, meaning their inspection could only be conducted in a way that’s favorable to the industry… It’s hard to believe that a full inspection of a nuclear power plant the size of Gori-1 could only take 8 days.’’
Korea relies on 21 nuclear reactors to meet about 35 per cent of its electricity needs. While Gori-1 completed its life span in 2007, it was granted a 10-year extension in 2008, following an inspection by the IAEA.