S.Korea Launches Probe Into Nuclear Accident

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

It is unfortunate when even we in the nuclear industry confuse dose 
limits from a regulatory perspective with what is considered to be 
"safe". And how does one define safe anyway? This article refers to 
the 600 rem as being a fatal dose. Yet we have 2 Japanese workers 
still alive, yet very ill, receiving doses approaching 1700 rem, or 
higher. Statements such as quoted in this article, and in others from 
our profession only do harm. These statements do not take into 
account medical intervention, which significantly increases an 
individual's chances of surviving extremely high doses.

Wednesday October 6 5:03 AM ET 

S.Korea Launches Probe Into Nuclear Accident

SEOUL (Reuters) - Amid angry protests by environmental groups and 
neighboring residents, South Korea said Wednesday it had launched an 
investigation into an accident at an east coast nuclear power plant 
which exposed 22 workers to radiation.  

``We have sent an investigation team to the plant to find out 
precisely the cause behind the accident,'' a spokesman for the 
Ministry of Science and Technology told Reuters.  

Wolsung nuclear power plant said Tuesday 22 workers were exposed to 
radiation Monday from a leak of heavy water during maintenance of its 
water cooling pump. They were not harmed.  

A spokesman for the plant said the leak, which took place at around 7 
p.m. at Wolsung nuclear power reactor No.3 in the east coast province 
of Kyongsang, some 169 miles from Seoul, was stopped immediately.  

The spokesman said about 45 litters of heavy water leaked but was 
contained within the plant. The maximum level of radiation was 440 
millirem, nine percent of the legally safe radiation exposure, he 
added.  

A rem is a measure of potential damage to a living organism and about 
600 rem is considered a fatal dose. One rem is equal to 1,000 
millirem.  

The ministry spokesman said it was the eighth such accident in South 
Korea from a leak of heavy water since 1984.  

Despite the plant's assurances, local environmental groups protested 
outside the government complex in Seoul Wednesday, blaming the 
authorities for lax safety management of nuclear plants.  

The groups also demanded the government allow a public inquiry into 
the accident and remove all nuclear reactors from South Korea.  

Local media said residents living near the Wolsung plant also 
expressed their concern and anger over the incident.

The leak follows neighboring Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident last 
Thursday when workers mixing a uranium solution triggered a nuclear 
chain reaction at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, about 90 
miles northeast of Tokyo.  

Fifty-five people, mainly plant workers and emergency personnel who 
responded to the Tokaimura accident, were exposed to
the radiation and three remain in serious condition.

South Korean government officials said after Japan's incident that 
they did not anticipate similar accidents in Korea and that
they planned to stick to an ambitious nuclear power program.

State-run power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (NYSE:KEP - news) 
runs 14 nuclear reactors in Korea with a combined capacity of 12,020 
megawatts, supplying about 40 percent of the country's electricity.  

By 2005, the government plans to complete another six reactors, 
adding 5,700 megawatts capacity, and 10 more, adding 11,200 
megawatts, by 2015.  

South Korea, like Japan, favors nuclear power due to low production 
costs and its lack of natural power resources. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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