Present status of nuclear containments and ISI in Korea

Since the first nuclear power plant started in commercial service in 1978 in Korea, 20 units have been operated and maintained, and most recently several units were under construction and planned to be constructed in order to meet the demand of more electricity. The importance of nuclear containments always has been one of the hottest issues for the safety and protection of nuclear power plants. From 1970s to present year, various types of nuclear containments have been constructed until now. With the changes of times, nuclear containment systems have undergone a remarkable change, and finally a Korea standard nuclear power plant was defined. For those reasons, various regulatory issues, inspection technologies, technical requirements for periodic inspection have been applied differently depending on the specific nuclear containment types. In this study, overall status of nuclear power plants, development stages of nuclear containment systems, and inservice inspections in Korea were researched.