Gas Leak Kills 3 at S. Korean Reactor's Construction Site
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Three workers have been confirmed dead, with another one wounded, in a gas leakage accident in southeastern South Korea where a new nuclear reactor is under construction, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.
The workers were suffocated at about 5:18 pm local time (0818 GMT) at the construction site for the Shin Gori No.3 reactor in the country's southeastern city of Ulsan. The reactor is scheduled to begin operation in June next year.
Nitrogen gas was believed to be leaked underground at an auxiliary building of the reactor, but the exact cause was under investigation.
The trio, who were exposed to the gas on a patrol mission for safety, were taken to a nearby hospital but were confirmed dead later. Another worker did not see a doctor as he suffered a light nausea.
The Ministry of National Safety, the country's control tower of disaster management, said there was not any leakage of radioactive materials as the reactor was under construction.
A government official was quoted by local media E-Daily as saying that it had no relevance to any hacking attack, noting that it was a safety accident caused by gas leakage.
A perpetrator, who identified himself as "president of anti- nuclear group in Hawaii," had threatened hacking attacks against internal networks of the country's nuclear reactors, but no accident happened.
The group posted online documents, including blueprints and installation diagrams on Dec. 15-23, calling for shutdown of Gori Nos. 1 and 3 and Wolsong No.2 reactors. The Gori No.1 reactor is the country's oldest one that began operation in 1978.
It has threatened to unveil about 100,000 pages of undisclosed internal documents unless the three reactors are closed down by Dec. 25. The energy ministry said it will be on emergency stand-by until the year-end though no hacking attacks occurred, Xinhua reported.
South Korea operates 23 nuclear reactors, which generate about 24 percent of the country's electricity demand.
