SKorea idles 2 nuke plants after cable tests faked - Polidicks

[QUOTE]SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has idled two nuclear power plants after finding that test results for crucial control cables were falsified in a new blow to an industry mired in a graft scandal and safety lapses. [B]South Korea's trade and energy ministry said Tuesday a company contracted to conduct tests fabricated the results for cables that failed to meet international standards for capacity to withstand changes in voltage and pressure. It warned that the plant shutdowns would result in summer power shortages.[/B] The [B]cables control valves that are responsible for cooling nuclear fuel or preventing the release of radioactive materials during an emergency[/B]. Another four nuclear reactors that were either shut down for scheduled maintenance or under construction were also using cables that had failed the tests. "If these control cables do not operate well during an emergency, we viewed that it would not guarantee to cool nuclear fuels or to shut off radioactive materials," South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said in a statement. It said the cables, which were in use since December 2011, failed nine of 12 tests pertinent to their operation in a "loss of coolant accident." Han Jinhyun, vice trade and energy minister, declined to name the company while the government's investigation is ongoing. The ministry will sue the company and also ask prosecutors to launch a probe, he told a press conference. The revelations add to public worries about nuclear safety and power shortages during the summer when demand is at its peak. They are a new blow to South Korea's ambitions to export its nuclear technology. With the shutdown of the Shin-Kori No. 2 and Shin-Wolsong No. 1 reactors to replace cables, a total of 10 nuclear plants are now offline. [B]The minister said it would take around four months to replace the cables and warned "unprecedented power shortages"[/B] are expected in coming months. "There is no means to increase power supply in the short term, so we expect we need to lower demand considerably to weather the crisis," he said.[/QUOTE] [url]http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-idles-2-nuke-plants-cable-tests-faked-081956402.html[/url] Wow.

Someone is going to find themselves in a shitload of extreme shit.

Boy, I'd hate to be that guy/company right about now. At least they caught on, gives them room to unfuck it.

Oh wow whoever came up with that idea is so fucked

Somebody needs to go to jail. Nuclear security should [I]not[/I] be taken lightly and shit like this is why people don't trust Nuclear power, and the reason we're still polluting the sky with smoke from coal.

What kind of asshole fakes safety tests in a nuclear facility?

[QUOTE=squids_eye;40815306]What kind of asshole fakes safety tests in a nuclear facility?[/QUOTE] The greedy kind.

It'll be interesting to find out who wanted these tests faked. Unless this was the same company that installed the cables in the first place, and they knew they were faulty cables I don't see the motivation.

Hugh Grant is up to something

[QUOTE=Heeples;40816310]It'll be interesting to find out who wanted these tests faked. Unless this was the same company that installed the cables in the first place, and they knew they were faulty cables I don't see the motivation.[/QUOTE] greenpeace obviously

It's shit like THIS that caused TMI and Chernobyl to go to shit. Faking safety tests on anything is a recipe for disaster, i hope whoever is responsible faces more than just getting fired or fined. Chernobyl has fucked up the lives of thousands of people back when it happened, all because someone didn't pay attention to safety regulations, TMI happened because the cooling system valves weren't inspected often enough, and a primary one failed. SHIT LIKE THIS, is why many people don't want nuclear power plants, they're safer than coal plants, but when someone fucks up, things tend to be worse.

[t]http://www.impawards.com/1979/posters/china_syndrome_xlg.jpg[/t]

This is totally going to end well....

[QUOTE=squids_eye;40815306]What kind of asshole fakes safety tests in a nuclear facility?[/QUOTE] "lol wats going to happen its just a nuclear facility"

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;40815255]Somebody needs to go to jail. Nuclear security should [I]not[/I] be taken lightly and shit like this is why people don't trust Nuclear power, and the reason we're still polluting the sky with smoke from coal.[/QUOTE] I'll never trust nuclear power just because of stuff like this. It's impossible to remove the human element from the equation, which means nuclear reactors will never be 100% safe. And even a "minor" accident at a plant is a environmental disaster that's impossible to clean up. And coal soot is eventually recycled by plants, the same can't be said about nuclear waste, which must be expensively processed and buried, and then sit for 10,000 years. I don't want that shit being transported within the same state that I live in, let alone be buried anywhere.

Odd. The Beeb article mentioned that the uncertified components were in non-nuclear parts of the plant. Now Yahoo says they were.

[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;40820180]I'll never trust nuclear power just because of stuff like this. It's impossible to remove the human element from the equation, which means nuclear reactors will never be 100% safe. And even a "minor" accident at a plant is a environmental disaster that's impossible to clean up. And coal soot is eventually recycled by plants, the same can't be said about nuclear waste, which must be expensively processed and buried, and then sit for 10,000 years. I don't want that shit being transported within the same state that I live in, let alone be buried anywhere.[/QUOTE] The problem with that is that coal power throws previously locked up carbon into the atmosphere. If we use it until we run out, we'll have bigger problems than fuel shortages. That's not all though. Nuclear plants fuck up an area that's usually 30km in radius, and spreads clouds of carcinogenic material over large regions of the globe. Think about it for a second. You figure a major disaster every 20-30 years, and each one takes a Chernobyl-sized chunk out of available real estate. Then dig up stats on what the cloud from a Chernobyl sized disaster does to the population over time and factor in what exactly it does to the environment in vectors. Then compare that with the number of deaths and amount of damage caused by coal mining accidents, plant accidents, coal dust inhalation, environmental damage and all of that other fun stuff. Tell me what you see. I'm not going to make any assumptions on it. For all I know, coal could be the better option. Just tell me what you see.

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;40820410]The problem with that is that coal power throws previously locked up carbon into the atmosphere. If we use it until we run out, we'll have bigger problems than fuel shortages. That's not all though. Nuclear plants fuck up an area that's usually 30km in radius, and spreads clouds of carcinogenic material over large regions of the globe. Think about it for a second. You figure a major disaster every 20-30 years, and each one takes a Chernobyl-sized chunk out of available real estate. Then dig up stats on what the cloud from a Chernobyl sized disaster does to the population over time and factor in what exactly it does to the environment in vectors. Then compare that with the number of deaths and amount of damage caused by coal mining accidents, plant accidents, coal dust inhalation, environmental damage and all of that other fun stuff. Tell me what you see. I'm not going to make any assumptions on it. For all I know, coal could be the better option. Just tell me what you see.[/QUOTE] The future is fusion.

If we can get it working. I'm sure we will, but you never know.