The government is reviewing a plan to shorten the safety inspection cycle during power plant demolition work from the current six months to two months, according to reports on the 26th. The recent collapse of a boiler tower at the Ulsan thermal power plant occurred four months after the last safety inspection. As a result, the judgment is that safety inspections should be conducted more frequently to prevent accidents.

On the 11th, the sixth day since the boiler tower collapse, blasting demolition work on Units 4 and 6 is underway to rescue the buried and missing at the scene of the Unit 5 boiler tower collapse at the Ulsan Thermal Power Plant in Nam-gu, Ulsan. /Courtesy of News1

Companies seeking to carry out power plant demolition work must submit a hazard prevention plan in advance to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. Accordingly, while demolition work is underway, safety inspections must be conducted at least once every six months.

The Ulsan thermal power plant accident occurred on the 6th. The previous safety inspection was conducted on July 2. After more than four months without a safety inspection, an accident ultimately occurred. Experts note, "There are 51 power plants slated for demolition, so safety inspections need to be conducted more frequently than now."

Status of HJ Shipbuilding & Construction's self-review and verification of the Harmful and Hazard Prevention Plan related to the demolition site of boiler tower Units 4, 5, and 6 at the Ulsan Thermal Power Plant. /Courtesy of Democratic Party of Korea Office of Kang Deuk-gu

In fact, safety inspections are conducted every two months at logistics warehouse construction sites. The inspection cycle was shortened following incidents such as the April 2020 fire at the HANEXPRESS logistics warehouse construction site in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which killed 38 workers.

Meanwhile, experts also point out that the practice of having the company in charge of power plant demolition conduct its own safety inspections needs improvement. At the Ulsan thermal power plant, both of last year's inspections and both of this year's inspections were all conducted in-house by the contractor, HJ Shipbuilding & Construction. HJ Shipbuilding & Construction lost its qualification to conduct in-house safety inspections in August after an accident at a Busan urban railway construction site under its work led to the death of one worker.

One expert said, "Demolishing power plants carries high risk, so it is appropriate to have an institution other than the contractor conduct the safety inspections."

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