Kori Nuclear Power Plant

Kori Nuclear Power Plant
Kori Nuclear Power Plant, Reactors Kori 1, Kori 2, Kori 3, Kori 4 from right to left.
Official name	고리원자력발전소
Country	South Korea
Location	Gori, Busan
Coordinates	35°19′12″N 129°17′24″E / 35.319904°N 129.290053°E / 35.319904; 129.290053Coordinates: 35°19′12″N 129°17′24″E / 35.319904°N 129.290053°E / 35.319904; 129.290053
Status	Operational
Construction began	Unit 1: August 1, 1972 Unit 2: December 23, 1977 Unit 3: October 1, 1979 Unit 4: April 1, 1980 Unit 5: June 16, 2006 Unit 6: June 5, 2007 Unit 7: October 16, 2008 Unit 8: August 19, 2009
Commission date	Unit 1: April 29, 1978 Unit 2: July 25, 1983 Unit 3: September 30, 1985 Unit 4: April 29, 1986 Unit 5: February 28, 2011 Unit 6: July 20, 2012 Unit 7: December 20, 2016
Decommission date	Unit 1: June 18, 2017
Owner(s)	Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power
Operator(s)	Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Westinghouse KEPCO E&C
Cooling source	Sea of Japan (East sea of Korea)
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 640 MW 1 × 1011 MW 1 × 1012 MW 2 × 997 MW 1 × 1383 MW
Make and model	3 × WH-F 2 × OPR-1000 1 × APR-1400
Units under const.	1 × 1340 MW APR-1400
Units planned	2 × 1340 MW APR-1400
Units decommissioned	1 × 576 MW WH-60
Thermal capacity	1 × 1882 MWth 2 × 2912 MWth 2 × 2825 MWth 1 × 3983 MWth
Nameplate capacity	6040 MW
Capacity factor	74.45% (includes Units 1 & 7)
Annual net output	43,148 GW·h (2016) (includes Units 1 & 7)

The Kori Nuclear Power Plant (Korean: 고리원자력발전소, Hanja: 古里原子力發電所) is a South Korean nuclear power plant located in Kori, a suburban village in Busan. It is owned and operated by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of KEPCO. The first reactor began commercial operation in 1978.

An expansion of the plant begun in 2006 added four new Korean-sourced reactors, the so-called Shin Kori reactors. The first pair of Shin Kori reactors are of the OPR-1000 design, while the second two are the APR-1400 design. By November 2010 the first was online and the rest undergoing trials or construction. As of December 2016 approval of operation of reactor 4 is expected in the first half of 2017.^[1] Two further APR-1400 reactors, known as Shin Kori 5 and Shin Kori 6, are in planning. However, the three main opposition parties for the 2017 special presidential election have pledged to stop construction on these two reactors, putting their future in doubt.^[2]

Reactors

As of February 2017 all reactors on site are pressurized water reactors.

Kori 1 was shutdown in June 2017 in advance of decommissioning beginning in 2022 after its spent nuclear fuel is removed.^[4]

Incidents

On February 9, 2012, during a refueling outage, loss of off-site power (LOOP) occurred and emergency diesel generator (EDG) 'B' failed to start while EDG 'A' was out of service for scheduled maintenance, resulting in a station blackout (SBO). Off-site power was restored 12 minutes after the SBO condition began. The LOOP was caused by a human error during a protective relay test of the main generator. The EDG 'B' failing to start was caused by the failure of the EDG air start system. Further investigation revealed that the utility did not exercise proper control of electrical distribution configuration to ensure the availability of the Station Auxiliary Transformer (SAT) while conducting test on the Unit Auxiliary Transformer (UAT). After restoring off-site power through the SAT, the operators eventually recovered shutdown cooling by restoring power to a residual heat removal pump. During the loss of shutdown cooling for 19 minutes, the reactor coolant maximum temperature in the hot leg increased from 37℃ to 58.3℃ (approximately 21.3℃ rise), and the spent fuel pool temperature slightly increased from 21℃ to 21.5℃. There was no adverse effect on the plant safety as a result of this event, no radiation exposure to the workers, and no release of radioactive materials to the environment. However, inconsistent with the requirements, the licensee did not report the SBO event to the regulatory body in a timely manner and did not declare the "alert" status of the event in accordance with the plant emergency plan. The licensee reported this event to the regulatory body about a month after the event had occurred.^[5]

On 2 October 2012 at 8:10 a.m. Shingori 1 was shut down after a warning signal indicated a malfunction in the control rod system. An investigation is currently underway to verify the exact cause of the problem.^[6]

In June 2013 Kori 2 was shutdown, and Kori 1 ordered to remain offline, until safety-related control cabling with forged safety certificates is replaced.^[7] Control cabling installed in the APR-1400s under construction failed flame and other tests, so need to be replaced delaying construction by up to a year.^[8]

In October 2013 cable installed in Shin Kori 3 failed safety tests, including flame tests. Replacement with U.S. manufactured cable has delayed the startup of the plant,^[8][9] which eventually entered commercial operation 3 years late.^[1]

Appearances

In the recently released movie Pandora, the Kori Nuclear Power Plant is a main scene in the movie. The movie touches on the dangers of nuclear energy in South Korea, and if it were to go wrong.

See also

• Nuclear power in South Korea
• List of nuclear reactors in South Korea

References

External links

• Media related to Kori Nuclear Power Plant at Wikimedia Commons
• Kori plant overview