Nuclear reactor, idled due to fake papers, back online soon

Korea will soon fire up the Yeonggwang nuclear reactor No. 5, which was shut down in November due to thousands of its parts bearing fake quality warranties, the nuclear safety commission said yesterday.

A restart of the 1-million-kilowatt reactor will greatly relieve the country’s state-run power distributor which is struggling to keep the power reserve above what is considered a safe level of 4 million kilowatts.

The nuclear safety commission said all the parts in question have been replaced and are now operating safely.

Yeonggwang No. 6, at the same site in South Jeolla, was also shut down and is now being considered for resumption.

An official from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said additional safety checks are needed first.

Although only two nuclear reactors were ordered to stop last year due to the troubled parts, the government has been checking to see if other parts also bore counterfeit safety documents at the rest of the nation’s nuclear power plants.

“It has been confirmed that a total of 13,794 [substandard] parts of 561 categories were supplied to the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation under fake warranties over the past 10 years, and that 6,494 of them have actually been used in nuclear power plants,” the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said in a statement.

Yonhap