April 27, 2024

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Korea’s nuclear commission on Feb. 25 approved the restart of a reactor located in the southern part of the country that was shut down last month.

The Wolseong-3 reactor located in Gyeongju, 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, automatically went offline on Jan. 21 as one of its coolant pumps stopped operation, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said.

The so-called surge capacitor inside of the No. 1 pump was damaged, the commission said, adding that it has fully addressed the fault.

“We confirmed there was no abnormal increase in radiation detected near the nuclear complex,” the commission said in a press release.

Currently, Korea operates 24 nuclear reactors, which generate about 30 percent of its electricity.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)