South Korea shuts down two nuclear reactors after system malfunctions

South Korea shut down two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors at separate plants yesterday, following apparently unrelated system malfunctions that triggered calls for a safety review.

"Both power plants remain stable and pose no threat of radiation leakage," state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) said, adding investigations were under way to determine the cause of malfunctions.

A KHNP spokesman said there was "no correlation" between the two incidents - at Yeonggwang on the southwest coast and Shingori on the southeast coast. The Shingori reactor, near Busan, was shut down after a warning signal in the morning.

"There was a malfunction in the reactor's control rod, but the reactor is now stable," the spokesman said.

It is the first time the reactor has been shut down since it began operations in February last year.

In the other incident at the Yeonggwang plant, a reactor automatically shut down after its steam generator showed a low water level.

In July, a different 1,000-MW reactor at Yeonggwang - 260 kilometres south of Seoul - went into automatic shutdown after a malfunction.