The licensing practice on nuclear power plants in Korea

The evolution of Korean regulatory system has tightly coupled with development ot Korean nuclear power program. The nuclear power plant licensing has become a major regulatory function of the government when the construction of the Kori NPP Unit 1 started in early 1970s. During this period, domestic laws and regulations applicable to the licensing of NPP were not yet fully developed. Therefore the vendor countries' laws and regulations were applied as mandatory requirement. Beginning in the early 19808, component approach was used and contracts were awarded separately for major components of the plants, thus enabling more domestic industries to participate in the projects. The two-step licensing system was incorporated into the law. In the third phase from 1987, major efforts have been concentrated on the maximum participation of local industries. The overriding priority for selecting suppliers was the condition of higher nuclear technology transfer to Korea. The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) was established in 1990 as an independent regulatory expert organization