KHNP Installs Reactor for Shin Kori Unit 3

Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 being built with APR1400 next-generation home-grown reactor

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) held a ceremony to install the reactor for the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Unit 3 at the Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 construction site in Shinam-ri, Seosaeng-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan City, on July 15.
Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 are being built with the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400), a Generation III, home-grown model. APR1400, which is the model of the projected four nuclear power units being built in the United Arab Emirates, has a capacity 1.4 times as high as that of the existing Korean Standard Nuclear Power, OPR1000. The latest one is more economical and safer with higher availability and a longer operating life of 60 years, and it has a reinforced design to quake-resistant standards.
The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) President Kim Jong-shin, who touched on the development process of the APR1400.
Question: What’s the significance of the installation of the reactor of Shin Kori Unit 3?
Answer: Korea now has 20 units in operation, and eight more new units are under construction simultaneously ― a tremendous feat for the first time in Korea’s 30 years of nuclear energy history since the Kori Unit 1 made its debut in 1978. In particular, Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 are adopting the APR1400, a Korean-type reactor with a large-scale capacity, developed with the nation’s own technology. The APR 1400 is the model being used for the four nuclear power units being built in the UAE in the nation’s first nuclear power export deal.
As a result, the construction of Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 are significant since they are being built with the APR 1400 Korea developed on its own over 10-odd years from 1992 as one of the nation’s leading technology development tasks.
Q: Will you tell our readers about the development of the APR1400?
A: The United States, France and other nuclear powerhouses, gaining superiority in nuclear power technology, began to tap the global nuclear power market in earnest in the late 1980s. They were scrambling for the development of safer and more economical nuclear reactors.
At the time, Combustion Engineering of the United States launched the development of the improved reactor, dubbed “System 80+” (SYS80+), Westinghouse jumped into the development of AP-600, and France’s NP began the development of the 1,550MW-class EPR reactor.
In the meantime, Korea devoted itself to copying technologies through the construction of Yongkwang Nuclear Power Units 3 & 4 under the cause of national technological self-sufficiency and the construction of the Korean Standard Power Plant (KSNP). The nation dreamed of completing the KSNP with the application of its own design technology.
Awareness for the need for preceding preparations for securing the nation’s own technology was prevalent in the local atomic energy circles. In particular, given the international trend toward developing new advanced reactors and the nation’s electricity demand, the necessity of developing a reactor with a large-scale capacity equivalent to the standards of advanced countries surfaced for the purpose of both domestic use and export.
With this backdrop, the government’s comprehensive science screening committee determined the development of an advanced reactor technology as part of the nation’s leading technology task G-7 Project in June 1992. The advanced reactor technology development program, which began in December 1992, was the first one involving all parties related to nuclear energy, including government, industry, academia and research circles, who put their heart and soul into realizing the goal.
Finally, in 2002, the nation’s home-grown 1,400 MW-class advanced reactor came into being. The program involved about 2,000 cumulative man-days from industry, academia and research circles for 10 years and cost a total of 234 billion won in R&D outlays.
The reactor made its debut as the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400), which was patented as a trademark with the Korea Intellectual Property Office in May 2003.
Q: Will you explain the APR1400’s characteristics?
A: The APR1400 is designed with improved accident-resistant and enhanced safety system reliability and capability so that the soundness of the reactor can be fully secured in the case of abnormalities and emergencies.
The existing reactors, albeit with abundant design margins, puts more focus on safety systems rather than depending on their own safety or design margin. The APR1400 is an improved version with thermal margin increase and enhanced safety system reliability and capability to minimize the occurrence of accidents.
The APR1400 is designed to ensure the mitigation of accidents and minimize radioactive exposure. It has features designed to improve the prevention, mitigation and management of accidents. By adopting design features designed to minimize radioactive gasses and liquids, the APR1400 has more reinforced safety features than the existing reactors, which employs a multi-layer protection system to contain radioactive exposure at off-site areas.
The design of the APR1400 focuses on both safety and economics. The composition of nuclear power units with more complex systems is due to additional installations designed to reinforce safety. The addition of safety systems can guarantee safety, but make it harder to secure economics. A review of design methods, including simplification, standardization and modulation, has been made to dramatically increase electricity production rather than the addition of safety systems in order to secure both safety and economics.
Besides, systems have been supplemented to cope with such severe accidents as the Three Mile Island near-meltdown and the Chernobyl meltdown. The capacity of the APR1400 has risen from 1 million kW to 1.4 million kW and its design lifespan has extended from 40 years to 60 years to enhance safety and economics.
APR1400 has an improved seismic design basis ― 0.3g instead of 0.2g ― so that nuclear power units can be constructed on non-rock sites, serving as a factor for giving the advanced reactor an advantage in making an overseas market entry.
Q: Will you explain the future process of the Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 project?
A: The project, which broke ground in September 2007, now progresses well without a hitch with a progress rate of 54 percent. Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 are to be on-line in September 2013 and September 2014, respectively, after installing equipment and undergoing stage-by-stage tests. The inauguration of Shin Kori Unit 4 in 2014 will bring the number of units in operation across the nation at that time to 28, which account for 37.4 percent of the nation’s aggregate electricity production.
In particular, the Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 project is expected to contribute to not only creating jobs and invigorating the regional economy, but also turning around the sagging construction industry, as it will cost 6.48 trillion won and 10 million cumulative workers before its dedication in 2014.
Q: Will you comment on your company’s future course?
A: KHNP has been devoting itself to making economic development and improving the quality of people’s lives by producing quality, cheap electricity via hydro and nuclear power in accordance with its corporate vision of “making lives affluent with environmentally-friendly energy.” We’re striving to nurture nuclear power into a next-generation growth engine in an era of low-carbon, green growth by shoring up both external growth and substantive development. nw

KHNP President Kim Jong-shin.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. holds a ceremony to install the reactor for the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Unit 3 at the Shin Kori Units 3 & 4 construction site in Shinam-ri, Seosaeng-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan City, on July 15.