Unit 3 of the Shin Kori NPP in South Korea officially began commercial operation on 12 December. Construction of Shin Kori 3, the first Korean-designed Advanced Pressurised Reactor-1400 (APR-1400), began in October 2008. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) was issued with an operating licence for the unit by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission in late October 2015. The reactor achieved first criticality the following December and was connected to the grid in January 2015.
KHNP said in a statement on 20 December that the start of commercial operation at Shin Kori 3 brings the total number of power reactors in operation in South Korea to 25 with a total installed capacity of 23.1GWe, which produce 22.1% of total generating capacity. Shin Kori 3, a 1350MWe pressurised water reactor, will produce about 10.4TWh of electricity a year, which will account for about 12% of the power in Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam, KHNP added.
Unit 3 had originally been due to begin operating at the end of 2013, with unit 4, another APR-1400, following in September 2014. However, their operation was delayed by the need to test safety-related control cabling and its subsequent replacement. Operation of Shin Kori 4 is expected to be approved during the first half of 2017. Two more APR-1400s are under construction as units 1 and 2 of the Shin Hanul site, andd are expected to enter service in April 2017 and February 2018. Two further APR-1400 units are planned for each of the Shin Kori and Shin Hanul sites.
