South Korea’s nuclear safety watchdog said yesterday it had launched an investigation at two power plants after a corruption scandal involving locally made copies of foreign components.
The commission is conducting probes at plants in Gori near the southeastern city of Ulsan and in the southwestern county of Yeonggwang, a Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corp (KHNP), which operates the nation’s atomic plants, said the two plants were using components developed by a local company, but based on illegally obtained French technology.
Manuals on the French components produced by Areva were “illegally leaked” in the course of finding local suppliers for key parts, KHNP said in a statement.
The components were seals used to prevent neutrons from leaking, it said.
The case was uncovered last week during an investigation by prosecutors into corruption at the plants.
“Our investigation began in late March and four KHNP officials have been arrested so far for taking bribes from [local] suppliers, along with a broker,” a prosecutor in Ulsan said on condition of anonymity.
An official identified only as Heo, in charge of managing component suppliers at Gori, is accused of giving a technology manual on the original components to a local manufacturer in 2009.
Prosecutors said the manufacturer delivered copied parts after being selected as a supplier one year later. In return, Heo received 80 million won (US$70,547).
A KHNP spokesman said the local manufacturer had since acquired patent rights in South Korea and the safety of the parts it supplied had been verified.
“The units are not counterfeit and they are not so crucial to the safety of reactors,” he said. “However ... there is no excuse for illegally leaking [the manual] to the local company.”
Dong-A Ilbo newspaper called the incident a “red light” for the safety of nuclear plants, which generate about a third of the country’s electricity.
The Korea Joongang Daily, in an editorial titled “Nuclear warning bell,” said there had been similar cases of corruption involving parts in the past.
KHNP’s argument, “that there is no problem in terms of performance and safety despite internal corruption being exposed, shows a serious apathy and insensitivity about the critical issue of safety,” the editorial said.
Concern grew about nuclear safety after KHNP engineers covered up for one month an electricity failure at the ageing Gori-1 reactor.
The reactor briefly lost mains power in February and the emergency generator failed to kick in. The power cut forced cooling water to stop circulating.
The incident resulted in no radioactive leaks, but sparked an uproar over safety.
South Korea relies on 20 nuclear reactors to meet about 35 percent of its electricity needs. The government has vowed to stick to the program despite last year’s nuclear disaster in Japan.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
RSS