Post-Fukushima Concerns Stall 12,720 Megawatts of South Korea's Nuclear Build

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Nuclear reactors supply about 30% of South Korea's power consumption. The country hopes to bring the number of reactors in operation by 2030 up to 39, from the current 23 reactors.

But plans for the implementation of the nuclear expansion program are being stalled by safety concerns, which in turn are threatening the ability of the power sector to maintain growth in generation capacity.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company Limited (KHNP) has reported that the completion of two reactors in Uljin, 3,000 kilometers southeast of Seoul, has been pushed back by at least 10 months due to the delay in government approval for the construction schedule. In the original plan, the reactors were scheduled to begin operations in 2016 and 2017. Planned maintenance outages on existing units at Uljin also will reduce available power until they are completed at the end of this year.

According to KHNP, the construction schedule for a further four reactors has been pushed into the future by at least one year. This stall in construction plans is partly due to a delay in government authorization. Plans for two more reactors have been scrapped completely, said the company.

The delays are being caused by what could be called "post-Fukushima stress," which has heightened safety concerns and lengthened the time taken by government regulators to verify safety specifications on new reactor projects.

A combined generation capacity of 12,720 megawatts (MW) covering eight nuclear reactors has been delayed or cancelled. This represents a crucial margin when the minimum designated power reserve level for the national grid is 4,000 MW.

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