Korea has launched a project to construct Shin Ulchin Nuclear Power Units 1 & 2 using home-grown core equipment and components.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) held a ceremony to launch the construction of Shin Ulchin Nuclear Power Units 1 & 2 on May 4 at the construction site near the Ulchin Nuclear Power Complex headquarters. 

Among the roughly 700 people on hand at the groundbreaking ceremony were President Lee Myung-bak; Chairman Kang Chang-soon of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission; Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Suk-woo; KHNP President Kim Jong-shin; Gyeongsangbuk-do Gov. Kim Kwan-yong; Hur Yeol, head of KHNP’s Shin Ulchin Nuclear Power Units Construction Site; and Ulchin Mayor Im Gwang-won.

Shin Ulchin Nuclear Power Units 1 & 2, powered by 1,400MW-class Advanced Pressured Water Reactors (APR1400), will be the first nuclear power units equipped with a homegrown Man-Machine Interface System (MMIS) and Reactor Coolant Pump (RCP). 

Korea has succeeded in the development of the MMIS and RCP, the two core nuclear power technologies for which the nation has previously depended on foreign imports, bringing it a step closer to becoming a major global nuclear power player. A permit on the sole untapped nuclear design code is to be obtained by the end of this year and be installed in the construction of Shin Kori Unclear Power Unit 5.

MMIS is like a nuclear power unit’s brain and nerve network, utilizing digital and human engineering technologies via the latest computers to consolidate a wide range of functions ranging from operation and control to surveillance, instrumentation, and emergency safety.

The homegrown MMIS, completely eliminating the need to import from Westinghouse of the United States, has four strengths: improved reliability through the world’s first four and three-layered systems, excellent installation and maintenance, greater reliability through double-layered control and information systems, and it meets international standards by dividing safety and non-safety systems.

A function evaluation of the homegrown MMIS by an expert group from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that eight practices, including the establishment of consolidation verification equipment, proved excellent. In particular, new and existing nuclear power units in Korea and abroad can adopt the MMIS regardless of type or capacity. The technology is forecast to be available for safety control infrastructure for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, aviation, and defense.

The concrete forming work for Shin Ulchin Unit 1 is scheduled to begin this coming September and a reactor will be installed in June 2014 before it is dedicated in April 2017. The concrete forming work for Shin Ulchin Unit 2 is to be done in September 2013, and a reactor is to be installed in May 2015 before it is dedicated in April 2018.

The safety of the new nuclear power units will be reinforced from the construction stage since they are subject to 50 reinforced safety recommendations made in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The strengthened safety measures include the installation of a tritium removal facility, designed to eliminate tritium even in the case of the loss of power, and a system designed to stop the operation of a reactor in the event of an earthquake, as well as the securing of mobile power generation vehicles. 

The construction of the two new nuclear power units will be a megaproject that will cost about 7 trillion won and involve roughly 6.2 million man-days.