The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) gave the go-head for Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit 1 to resume its operation after a 30-year design life span.
Chairman Lee Unchul of the NSSC presided over the 35th plenary session on Feb. 26 to discuss extending Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit, which has been halted for three years after the conclusion of its 30-year life span. Discussion among the commission lasted 15 hours into the early morning of Feb. 26 before the issue was put to a vote in which all seven commissioners cast yes votes to approve the extension of the unit. Two commissioners opposing it walked out of the office.
Some commissioners once demanded that the issue be put to a public debate or to a vote of neighborhood residents to determine whether the unit should be extended, although the application for extending the unit was made before the revision of a law on strengthened public acceptability of nuclear energy. On the issue, KHNP President Cho Suk appeared at the session and told commissioners that KHNP will do its utmost to secure public acceptability after safety is verified.
The plant operator Korea Hydroelectric and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) is preparing for the restart of Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit 1 around April, it was learned. The permission gave a technical license to operate the unit until October 2022. The starting point of the 10-year extension measure is the date of the expiry of the initial life span, not the date of issuing the permission, so the real operation of the power unit is 7 more years.
The 678-megawatt heavy-water reactor located in Gyeongju City on the southeast coast has been shut down since its technical license expired in November 2012, following 30 years of commercial operation.
Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit 1 is the second nuclear facility to be given an extension. In 2007, the government extended the life span of the 580-megawatt Kori No. 1 light-water reactor, which began commercial operations in 1977, by 10 years.
Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit 1 was the nation’s second nuclear power facility to go into commercial operation in April 1983. In 2010, KHNP submitted an application to extend its operation by 10 years in 2010. But a debate over the extension of the unit has heated up over misgivings of safety of an aged nuclear power unit in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident. President Park Geun-hye promised to conduct a stress test on the nuclear facility during her presidential campaign in 2012.
KHNP said it has poured 560 billion won into refurbishing Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit to keep it operable.
But opponents, including the opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), and some civic organizations, have opposed over the extension of the unit.
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A view of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Unit 1(Photos:KHNP)
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