New Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) President & CEO Kim Kyun-seop delivered his inaugural speech in which he urged his staff to restore confidence and pursue innovation on June 11. 

Kim said, “We’ll have to conduct an overall review of safety operations and crisis management manuals to create new steps to respond to manmade disasters as well as any natural disasters we can imagine.” He said outside experts will be mobilized if his company lacks in-house capabilities and critics of atomic energy should be included in order to ensure transparency. 

Kim, formerly the vice chairman of Shinsung Solar Energy, was appointed the new KHNP president & CEO during an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting at the KHNP headquarters on June 7. 

He said he understands that the reality is that many companies fail to live up to their safety manuals. But he warned against such bad habits, saying that anyone who is found to do so when an unannounced inspection is made will be considered unwilling to work for KHNP. 

He was referring to public misgivings over KHNP’s nuclear power management capabilities following reports of subcontract deal corruption and the supply of copycat parts and components. 

KHNP has accomplished its important mission of buttressing the development of the national economy and has succeeded in exporting homegrown nuclear power plant technology abroad, but such achievements were overshadowed by some employees’ misconduct.  

At a speech at a recent ground-breaking ceremony for the Shin Ulchin Nuclear Power Units 1 & 2 project, President Lee Myung-bak denounced the latest revelations of malpractice as incidents stemming from the closeness of the nuclear power industry and the easy-going attitude of being in a “league of their own.”

Kim urged his executives and staff to ensure the so-called moral rearmament by attaching the foremost priority to safety, reciting an ancient ancestors’ epigram saying that people should be mindful of crises during times of comfort.  

The new KHNP CEO called for his executives and staff to demonstrate that they have been reborn and “atone for them” through overall management innovation in order to recoup the lost public trust.  

Kim said the company would focus on the issues of extending the life of the Kori Nuclear Power Unit and the Wolsong Nuclear Power Unit, which is nearing the end of its designed usage period, pending issues that hang in the balance due to a void in KHNP leadership.

He called for the implementation of a thorough performance evaluation system, saying “a lack of achievements or outcomes will not be given any marks in the evaluation.” 

Departments of expertise for the development of the nuclear power industry will take in an infusion of “outside blood,” top-rated experts, and KHNP will not spare any efforts to enhance their staff’s capabilities through such things as career development programs. 

Kim also stressed that he will focus on communicating with staff members, saying that his telephone and computer will be made available in order to contact him, and the process will be simplified via e-mail and electronic accounting systems.  

A graduate of Seoul National University’s Aviation Science Department, the new KHNP president held such positions as assistant minister for planning at the predecessor of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, president of HSD Engine, and director of the Korea Energy Management Corp. He once served as the Korean ambassador to South Africa, a civilian representative of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth, and vice chairman of Shinsung Solar Energy.