Nuclear power in South Korea

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The total electrical generation capacity of the nuclear fleet of South Korea is over 17.5 GWe. This is 28.5% of the generation capacity but supplies 45% of total electrical consumption, maintaining high capacity factors of over 95%.

Future plans for nuclear are for continued expansion to keep pace with the increasing demand for electricity. Eight more plants are planned to come on stream in the period 2010 to 2016, adding 9.4 GWe total. Some construction is underway as of 2007.

Nuclear power research in South Korea is very active with investigation into a variety of advanced reactors, including a small modular reactor, a liquid-metal fast/transmutation reactor and a high-temperature hydrogen generation design. Fuel production and waste handling technologies have also been developed locally. It is also a member of the ITER project.

South Korea has been domestically fabricating nuclear fuel for its nuclear plants since 1990, but has no domestic uranium enrichment program and imports the fuel from abroad. Recently, South Korea has signed a 10-year deal with Areva for uranium enrichment to be conducted at Areva's Georges Besse II plant. Of course, Wolsong does not require prior enrichment since CANDU reactors can be run with natural uranium.

South Korea's first antinuclear protests occurred in December 1988 when residents near the Kori complex demonstrated against low-level waste that had been secretly buried just outside the plant. In 1989 residents near other nuclear reactors protested the environmental damage they said was caused by the units. Sixteen antinuclear groups joined together to form the Movement for the Eradication of Nuclear Power Plants. The government, however, asserted that the South Korean nuclear program was well run and that none of the 193 antinuclear protests reported since 1977 was serious.

1 History
2 Nuclear related organizations
3 Reactor overview
4 See also
5 Bibliography

[edit] History

South Korea joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957 and made immediate efforts to benefit from nuclear power, since fossil fuel resources available in the country are very limited. In 1962, Korea's first research reactor achieved criticality.

Commercial-scale power generation started at the Kori-1 plant in 1978, and another 19 reactors have since been built using a mixture of CANDU (4 reactors) and PWR (16 reactors) technologies.

The first generation of nuclear plants in South Korea was built almost entirely by foreign contractors. Since then, the domestic industry has advanced significantly. A Korean Standardized Nuclear Plant (KNSP) has been developed, which took many attributes from the System 80 design by Combustion Engineering, which is now Westinghouse Electric Company. Recently, a KNSP+ (also referred to as the Optimized Power Reactor 1000, or the OPR-1000) design has also been developed and is under construction at Shin-Kori and Shin-Wolsong.

[edit] Nuclear related organizations

Kepco was the sole utility from 1961 to 2001. After Kepco was split into multiple companies, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power inherited the nuclear business. Doosan is also a critical heavy industry company, and has won contracts to supply reactor vessels, steam generators, and integrated head packages to the four AP1000 plants to be built in the People's Republic of China. Korea Heavy Industries and Construction has also had a history of supplying components for nuclear power plants and has recently been designated by the government for the manufacture of nuclear power plants and components.

The Korean Atomic Research Institute (KAERI) is a government funded research organization.

The Korea Nuclear Fuel Company (KNFC) is the major fuel vendor in South Korea, operating a nuclear fuel fabrication facility capable of 550 tons/year of PWR fuel and 700 tons/year of CANDU fuel.

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) functions as the nuclear regulatory body in South Korea.

[edit] Reactor overview

South Korea has a relatively small number of nuclear generating stations, with only four, but each of them houses four or more units and three of the sites have more planned. Thus power production by nuclear plants is slightly more centralized than any other nuclear power using country in the world, but housing many units at one site also allows more efficient maintenance and lower costs. Only one of the 3 sites, Wolsong, does not use PWR technology (though the design has changed through the industry's development), but the Canadian CANDU technology.

Breakdown by site
Plant	Town	Province	Primary Technology	Current Capacity	Planned Capacity
Kori	Kori	Kyongnam	PWR	3035	7635
Ulchin	Ulchin	Kyongbuk	PWR	5680	8380
Wolsong	Wolsong	Kyongbuk	PHWR	2579	4479
Yeonggwang	Yeonggwang	Chonnam	PWR	5900	0

Breakdown by Reactor
Reactor	Type	Rating, MWe	Begin of Operation
Kori-1	PWR	563	1978
Kori-2	PWR	612	1983
Kori-3	PWR	950	1985
Kori-4	PWR	950	1986
Ulchin-1	PWR	950	1988
Ulchin-2	PWR	950	1989
Ulchin-3	KSNP	1000	1998
Ulchin-4	KSNP	1000	1999
Ulchin-5	KSNP	1000	2004
Ulchin-6	KSNP	1000	2005
Wolsong-1	CANDU	629	1983
Wolsong-2	CANDU	650	1997
Wolsong-3	CANDU	650	1998
Wolsong-4	CANDU	650	1999
Yeonggwang-1	PWR	950	1986
Yeonggwang-2	PWR	950	1987
Yeonggwang-3	System 80	1000	1995
Yeonggwang-4	System 80	1000	1996
Yeonggwang-5	KSNP	1000	2002
Yeonggwang-6	KSNP	1000	2002
Shin Kori 1	OPR-1000	1000	2010 (Under construction)
Shin Kori 2	OPR-1000	1000	2010 (Under construction)
Shin Wolsong 1	OPR-1000	1000	2011 (Under construction)
Shin Wolsong 2	OPR-1000	1000	2012 (Under construction)
Shin Kori 3	APR-1400	1400	2013 (Under construction)
Shin Kori 4	APR-1400	1400	2014 (Under construction)
Shin Ulchin 1	APR-1400	1400	2015 (Planned)
Shin Ulchin 2	APR-1400	1400	2016 (Planned)