South Korea on Friday started work on two new nuclear reactors despite fears over safety in the aftermath of the radioactive disaster in Japan last year.
South Korea
on
Friday started work on two new nuclear reactors despite fears over safety in
the aftermath of the radioactive disaster in
Japan
last
year.
The reactors, each with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts, are being built at
existing nuclear power plants near Uljin on the east coast, the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy said.
The government plans to spend KRW7 trillion ($6.18 billion) to build the New
Uljin 1 and 2 reactors. The first is expected to be online around April 2017
and the second by February 2018.
"Safety has been drastically strengthened as all recommendations for
enhancing safety that were made after the Fukushima disaster have been
reflected in the design," the ministry said in a statement.
New features include devices that automatically shut down reactors at times of
earthquakes, mobile electricity generators and gas-removing facilities that can
operate even during a power failure.
The ministry said the new pressurized reactors would be the first models using
purely locally developed key parts and systems.
International environmental group Greenpeace, a vocal critic of the country's
nuclear power program, said it was ironic that
South
Korea
started building two new
reactors on the eve of
Tokyo
shutting down its own reactors.
Japan
is
scheduled to be nuclear-free Saturday when the last of its 50 reactors goes
offline temporarily for maintenance.
"It is unbelievable that on the day before Japan closes all its reactors,
President Lee (Myung-bak) is going in the other direction--building two new
ones in Korea," Lee Hee-song, a Greenpeace campaign leader in Seoul, said
in a statement.
"It is clear that
Korea
has
learned little from the
Fukushima
disaster, where hundreds of thousands of people are continuing to suffer the
consequences."
South Korea
relies on 21 nuclear reactors to meet about 35% of its electricity needs. It
plans to build 11 more, including those started Friday, by 2020.
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