Text Fwd: [Editorial] Untrustworthy safety tests at aging nuclear plants

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[Hankyoreh Editorial] Untrustworthy safety tests at aging nuclear plants
Posted on : May.7,2011 15:34 KST

The government has approved the renewed operation of the Gori Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 reaction, which has encountered frequent accidents due to the prolonging of its lifespan. It produced examination findings stating that the 21 nuclear power plants currently in operation are designed and operated to be safe even in a worst-case natural disaster scenario.

Anxieties about nuclear power have been running high since the accident that struck Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. In particular, the Gori No. 1 reactor was the subject of an injunction request by the Busan Bar Association to end its operation, and it has provoked many concerns from residents of the region. It is apparent that they will experience more worries, and issue more objections, thanks the government's slipshod safety checkup and hasty conclusion.

The government has stated that there will be no problem with the Gori No. 1 reactor if the coastal barrier is raised and yearly differentiated safety checkups are performed. It stated that a total of 56 specialists, including outside experts and Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety inspectors, conducted a focused examination between April 22 and May 3. In addition to lacking objectivity, however, the government's study failed to resolve the questions that have been raised.

It is difficult to comprehend how the government could announce that it would conduct a thorough examination of the reactor, no matter how long it took, and then produce a conclusion in just over ten days. Given that the Gori No. 1 reactor exhausted its thirty-year design lifespan in 2008, extension of it is uncharted territory. The failure to properly disclose the safety assessment report used as a basis for the decision to extend it has further bred apprehensions. For something like the Gori No. 1 reaction, a thorough and differentiated safety inspection should have been performed following the sufficient airing of resident opinions, and it is problematic that this did not occur.

The government is saying that the results of studies presuming a worst-case accident scenario from a natural disaster have shown all of South Korea’s nuclear power plants to be safe. It is staggering that such a pronouncement can be made even after seeing the Fukushima disaster, with things like emergency generators presented as “supplementary measures.”

Germany made the decision to immediately end operation on the seven of its seventeen power plants that have been in service for over 30 years, and to conduct careful inspections of the remainder. The European Union is conducting clear and rigorous nuclear power stress tests between June and December. The only conclusion one can draw is that the South Korean government, which should be conducting inspections from square one after hearing a variety of opinions, has instead embarked upon an effort of tailor-made safety PR presuming a continuation of its current nuclear power policy. This is why it is impossible for a South Korean population that has changed since Fukushima to trust a government that remains stuck in the pre-Fukushima era.

Residents of the area around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant are currently enduring great suffering, with radioactive material detected at 100 thousand times typical levels and their milk, vegetables, and even underground water contaminated with radioactivity. If we are to take any lesson from this catastrophe, we must conduct new safety examinations with greater objectivity and transparency.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Text Fwd: Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima

Gori Nuclear Power Plant. File photo taken March 16, 2011.


Kyunghyang
http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201104141616397&code=790101
Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima April 10, 2011

Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima


A few days ago, there was an accidental shutdown at the No. 1 reactor at Kori Nuclear Power Plant, the subject of recent controversy over extended lifetime.

Authorities at the Kori plant explained that the incident was simply an automatic shutdown due to the breakdown of electricity supply equipment, and that there are no problems regarding the safety of the reactor. Such explanations, however, no longer provide us with the sense of trust that they once did.

It so happens that, a few hours before Kori 1 shut down, the Japanese government suddenly acknowledged that the danger level of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident was equivalent to that of Chernobyl, while the Busan Bar Association applied for a court injunction to have Kori 1 taken out of operation.

At a time when trust in nuclear power has collapsed, the accident at Kori 1 is not something that can merely be disregarded as inconsequential. Kori 1's planned lifetime expired in June 2007, but the government decided to extend it for a further 10 years, starting in 2008.

It is said that at the time, one of the grounds for claiming that Kori 1 should not be closed down and should be run for longer was the successful lifetime extension of Japan's Fukushima Plant.

No reports from safety inspections regarding the lifetime extension of Kori 1 have been made public, however, and it has never been made known which or how many of its components have been replaced.

This is what makes it difficult to believe that the recent shutdown accident was simply due to equipment failure. It is highly likely that this accident was related to overall decrepitude. Parts that have surpassed their planned lifetime but not been replaced can go wrong at any time.

Japan's nuclear accident provides two lessons. Firstly, when an accident does happen, its results go beyond the imaginable; and secondly, that there is no use in believing that nuclear power plants can be managed safely.

Japan, which excels in management, increased distrust by responding in a flustered manner to the nuclear accident. Only the other day did the Japanese government finally raise the danger level of the Fukushima accident by a whole two grades to level seven, a level that can have serious effects on neighboring countries too.

It is not only the people of Japan who are surprised and disappointed. Until that point, the government and nuclear experts had been saying that the Japanese accident would not correspond to the worst possible scenario, and that there would be no problems when it came to Korea's safety.

Some even went as far as to suggest conspiracy theories when it came to those expressing doubts about the safety of nuclear power. Confidence in nuclear power, however, has already collapsed due to what happened in Japan.

When it comes to Kori 1, this is not just a matter of fixing the electrical equipment and hurrying to restart the reactor. There is no questioning the danger of decrepit nuclear plants.

Kori 1 produces no more than one percent of the total electricity consumed in Korea, and it is said that total electricity generation exceeds total demand by around 10%.

In other words, Korea's electricity situation is not so critical that we must place ourselves in danger. The decision on whether to restart Kori 1 must be taken through public debate and consensus. (Editorial, The Kyunghyang Daily News. April 14, 2011)