Magnitude 3.1 earthquake near Haenam did not affect South Korea’s nuclear power plants — Korea Herald
A magnitude 3.1 earthquake that occurred near Haenam in the South Jeolla–Gwangju region on Sunday morning did not affect the operation of South Korea’s nuclear power plants. The Korea Herald reports.
The tremor was recorded at 6:43 a.m. local time, 21 kilometers west-northwest of Haenam. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said that all nuclear power plants in operation continued to function normally. Seismic readings at the facilities remained below the 0.01 g alarm threshold.
Inspection at the Hanbit nuclear power plant
The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission separately reported that it had found no abnormalities at the country’s nuclear reactor facilities. The Hanbit nuclear power plant in Yeonggwang, the closest to the epicenter and located about 83.2 kilometers away, recorded ground acceleration of 0.0032 g.
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This figure is significantly below the plant’s design seismic level of 0.2 g. An emergency safety inspection conducted by the commission’s regional office at the Hanbit nuclear power plant also found no abnormalities.
Series of tremors in the region
Over the past 10 days, seven earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or higher have been recorded west-northwest of Haenam. Including weaker tremors, 71 earthquakes were detected in the area.
Similar seismic activity occurred there in 2020: 76 earthquakes were recorded, and the strongest of them also had a magnitude of 3.1. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources linked that series to a group of small and medium-sized faults and assessed the probability of the activity escalating into a major earthquake as low, while emphasizing the need for further monitoring.
