Regulator clears South Korea's Shin Kori-4 reactor to start operations

The commissioning is currently expected for the end of 2019.

The South Korean Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSCC) has given its consent to state-run power utility KHNP (Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power) to begin operations of the 1,340 MWe (net) Shin Kori-4 Advanced Pressurized Reactor-1400 (APR1400) project.

The construction of the reactor was authorised in 2006, while the actual construction licence was issued in April 2008. The construction of Shin Kori-4 started in August 2009 and was delayed by technical issues. KHNP completed cold hydrostatic testing and hot functional testing in 2015 and 2016, respectively. It initially expected the unit to begin commercial operation in September 2018 but it was delayed. The commissioning is currently expected for the end of 2019.

The Shin Kori nuclear power plant already consists of Shin Kori-1 and Shin Kori-2, two operational OPR-1000 reactors (950 MW net, 1,000 MW gross) that were commissioned in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and of Shin Kori-3 unit, the first Korean-designed APR-1400, which was commissioned in December 2016. Two other units, the Shin Kori-5 and 6 APR-1400 units, were approved by South Korea's nuclear regulator in June 2016 and are scheduled to come onstream in March 2023 and 2023, respectively.

This article was originally published by Enerdata.

Photo by IAEA Imagebank - 04790180, CC BY-SA 2.0