Gas leak kills three at South Korean n-reactor's construction site

Three workers have been confirmed dead, while another one was wounded, in a gas leakage accident Friday in southeastern South Korea where a new nuclear reactor is under construction.

The workers were suffocated at about 5.18 p.m. at the construction site for the Shin Gori No.3 reactor in the country's southeastern city of Ulsan, Xinhua reported citing Yonhap news agency. 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 light nausea.

The ministry of national safety, the country's controlling authority of disaster management, said there was no leakage of radioactive materials as the reactor was under construction.

A government official was quoted by 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 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 would be on emergency stand-by until the year-end though no hacking attacks occurred.

South Korea operates 23 nuclear reactors, which meet about 24 percent of the country's electricity demand.