SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s top nuclear regulator sees a vital role in sharing their safety knowledge together with the plants it’s exporting as Europe and Asia revisit nuclear power to fulfill carbon emissions goals and ensure energy security.
Since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May, South Korea – with 24 operating reactors and many years of nuclear power experience since 1978 – has heightened efforts to export nuclear plants.
Since August, the country has won contracts to potentially construct as much as eight nuclear power plants in Egypt and Poland. With those technology exports comes a responsibility to assist the countries develop the regulatory and safety rules to operate them, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Chairperson Yoo Guk-hee told Reuters.
“The very best priority of all nuclear facilities is safety, so regulatory techniques turn out to be very essential,” Yoo said in an interview on Tuesday.
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In August, South Korea was awarded a 3 trillion won ($2.12 billion) order to assist construct 4 nuclear plants in Egypt.
And on Monday, Seoul and Warsaw signed agreements to evaluate the viability of constructing 4 1,400-megawatt nuclear reactors in Patnow, Poland, using South Korean technology.
They’re the primary major export agreements South Korea’s nuclear industry has won since a $40 billion order from United Arab Emirates in 2009 to construct 4 nuclear plants.
For the reason that 2009 deal, the regulator has been working with UAE authorities to pass on regulatory techniques.
For example of how South Korea will help pass along regulatory knowledge, Yoo described how the regulator scientifically finds the correct flow rate for pumps that operate within the plant, then the plant operator designs the pump to that specification, which the regulator then checks for correct function.
“Such regulatory techniques are forwarded to the opposite country, in addition to forms and processes. We also dispatch our experts to assist support on the bottom,” Yoo said.
For a recent type of nuclear power technology called small modular reactors (SMR), Yoo said nuclear regulators are increasingly drawing up prematurely the principles SMR developers must follow, as around 20 countries are developing about 70 to 80 different types of SMR.
South Korea has also outlined plans to extend nuclear power’s share in its energy mix to 33% by 2030 from 27% currently, planning a further six nuclear plants by 2036 on top of the present 24, in a rustic the scale of the U.S. state of Indiana.
For a whole lot of Korean residents living near the reactors which have expressed safety concerns, Yoo said the transparent sharing of scientific safety verification in addition to frequent communication is obligatory to “dispel unnecessary fears”.
“Trust is difficult to achieve, and hard to regain when lost… Efforts resembling giving full explanations until residents understand, giving a site tour, and if needed, letting them see the info in real time are needed.”
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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