Doosan Enerbility will begin dismantling Kori Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, Korea's first commercial nuclear power plant. Full-scale dismantling work is beginning about eight years after it was permanently shut down in 2017.
Doosan Enerbility said on the 4th that it signed a contract with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) for the "Kori Unit 1 non-controlled area interior and yard facility dismantling work." This project is the first dismantling work to proceed since approval was granted in June for the final plan to dismantle Kori Unit 1. Doosan Enerbility described it as a project that opens the first stage of nuclear power plant decommissioning in Korea. The contract runs through 2028.
As the lead company of the dismantling work consortium, Doosan Enerbility, together with HJJ Heavy Industries and KEPCO KPS Co. (KPS), will sequentially dismantle secondary system facilities such as turbines and piping through dismantling work in non-controlled areas with no radiation exposure. The secondary system is equipment related to the turbine and generator. It creates high-temperature, high-pressure steam using thermal energy generated in the primary system, which includes the reactor that is the power generation facility, and uses that steam to spin the turbine and produce electricity.
Doosan Enerbility plans to use this contract to strengthen its position in the global nuclear decommissioning market. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the number of nuclear power plants permanently shut down worldwide is expected to increase from 214 now to 588 by 2050.
Kim Jong-du, head of the Nuclear BG at Doosan Enerbility, said, "It is meaningful that Doosan Enerbility will take on the first stage of dismantling Kori Unit 1, the first nuclear decommissioning project in Korea," and added, "We will do our best to carry out the work successfully based on the technological strength and experience we have built up over decades."