Confidence-Building
Takes Precedence
44 honored with diverse awards for promoting nuclear power safety

Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Science and Technology Oh Myung urged those with the nuclear power industry to promote confidence-building from the general public by securing the safety of nuclear power.
Deputy Prime Minister Oh delivered the remark during a ceremony celebrating the 11th anniversary of Nuclear Safety Day at the 63-story KLI building in Yeouido, Seoul on Sept. 5 with about 500 people, including the deputy prime minister and representatives of the industry, neighborhoods and civil organizations participating. He reawakened the significance of nuclear power, which has played an essential role in the wake of a hike of crude oil prices and the enter of force into the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and reconfirmed that guaranteeing the safety of nuclear power is the most important aspect.
A total of forty-four people, including Hong Jang-hee, chief of the power generation division at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP), were awarded with diverse prizes in recognition of their meritorious contribution of the safety of the nuclear power industry. Hong, who received the Order of Industrial Service Merit, Bronze Tower, has been credited with making contribu-tions to ensuring global top-notch safety of nuclear units in operation across Korea in terms of such categories as proven-tion of break-down stoppages, accident-free one-cycle operation, site inspections, anti-disaster steps and disaster management. He was praised for ensuring nuclear safety and promoting trust building.
Lee Jong-in, senior researcher with Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) was awarded with the government medal for carrying out nuclear safety assessments and research on safety regulations for 26 years.
In a recent interview on the occasion of the anniversary of Nuclear Safety Day, KINS President Shin Won-key stressed beefing up communication with the public with a focus on "making people feel at home with nuclear power" on top of explaining the safety of nuclear facilities to the public.
Concerning KINS business plans, KINS President Shin said his agency not only discloses information at the request of those who come up to locate it, but also it will contemplate "ways of making people feel at home."He noted that the reason is that the public standards of recognizing danger stem from their sentiment rather than technological aspects.
"The scope of public information disclosure has been expanding since 2003 when KINS opened the Nuclear Safety Information Center, and analyzing collected information and disclosing an easy and explained version of it to the public are designed to help people get a better understanding of nuclear safety,"he said.
"In an open society with public participation like today, social confidence in continuous nuclear uses is quite important, and protecting nuclear safety is a common value we all have to be responsible for,"he said. nw

Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Science and Technology Oh Myung awards the presidential citation to Oh Sung-hun, senior researcher of Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety during a ceremony for celebrating the anniversary of Nuclear Safety Day.