The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission deliberated on the 19th on the operating license for Unit 3 of the Saeul Nuclear Power Plant in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, but said it would resubmit the agenda to the 228th meeting to be held on the 30th of this month after an opinion emerged that more time was needed for review.
The commission held its 227th meeting in the main conference room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the day and took up the Saeul Unit 3 operating license proposal as a deliberation and resolution item. Commissioners debated the operating license proposal for about two and a half hours from 3:55 p.m. but concluded that further discussion was needed. They also requested supplementary materials, including detailed accident progress and evaluation results in the accident management plan.
Saeul Unit 3, which began construction in 2016, is the first nuclear plant redesigned to prepare for an aircraft terror attack. As a Korean-type reactor (APR1400), its generation capacity is 1,400 MW class. The capacity for nuclear fuel storage was increased to 60 years, three times that of existing plants, making it large enough to store an amount corresponding to the entire design life. It underwent a safety review by the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) from 2022 until recently. KHNP applied for the operating license on Aug. 5, 2020, together with Saeul Unit 4, its twin plant.
If the agenda is approved at the end of this month, it will be the first approval for a new reactor to operate in about two years since Shin-Hanul Unit 2 in Sep. 2023. In that case, Saeul Unit 3 will undergo about six months of commissioning and begin commercial operation next year.
In addition, on the day the commission imposed a penalty surcharge of 10.4525 billion won on Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) and 60 million won on the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) for violations of the Nuclear Safety Act.
KHNP received a penalty surcharge of 600 million won for Hanbit Unit 5, where a valve was replaced without obtaining an operating change permit; a penalty surcharge of 7.2125 billion won for Saeul Units 1 and 2, Shin-Wolseong Unit 2, Hanbit Units 1 and 3, and Shin-Hanul Unit 1 for using anchors that did not meet technical standards; and a penalty surcharge of 2.64 billion won for Wolseong Unit 2 and Hanbit Unit 6 for failing to conduct radiation monitoring when discharging liquid and gaseous waste. The Atomic Energy Research Institute received a penalty surcharge for constructing part of the Gijang research reactor facilities with a modified design without obtaining a construction change permit.