Huge hole in safety

Nuclear plant operation cannot go on like now

The recent news about prolonged, widespread use of substandard parts in atomic power plants here brings two questions to mind.

First, which of the two cases would have been more perilous: whether the plant operators have committed such horrifying irregularities wittingly or unwittingly? Second, are Koreans unfortunate to have such incompetent and irresponsible officials handle the risky facilities, or fortunate to have been free from a nuclear disaster nonetheless?

So stunning were what happened at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, the operator of nuclear power plants, in the past decade that one can hardly think of more logical queries.

It simply defies our understanding how it was possible that officials have used more than 5,000 falsely-certified parts and components in nearly 10 years and didn’t know it until a disgruntled supplier who failed in a competitive bidding blew the whistle.

In any way, the latest revelation shows the nation can no longer leave the operation of atomic plants in the hands of the KHNP, which has long become a symbol of incompetence, irresponsibility and irregularity. Officials say most of the components in question are non-essential expendables, like fuses, power switches and cooling fans. They must have forgotten a faulty valve initiated the Three Mile Island crisis.

Experts have long pointed to three major risks threatening the safety of nuclear plants: aging of facilities, faulty parts and human errors. The three are closely related to one another, and the nation’s nuclear power industry has all the three factors in a very dangerous combination. Behind all this is the closed organizational structure in which technicians, operators and regulators came from similar backgrounds and are closely knit through school and vocational ties.

So the first thing the government should do is to open up the organization to external competition and monitoring. <The Korea Times>