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Introduction
Recently, the potential environmental impact of nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents has accepted a lot of attention as there are over 440 operational NPPs in the world (IAEA, 2017). Moreover, the recent Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident in Japan caused by a tsunami after an earthquake on March 11, 2011, was not only a problem for Japan, but also an international issue due to the dispersion of radionuclides (Evangeliou et al., 2015; Masson et al., 2016). The environmental impact in Japan and other countries was investigated in several studies, focusing on the effect of long-distance atmospheric-dispersal of radionuclides (Srinivas et al., 2014; Keum et al., 2013). For the Fukushima accident, the assessments of health risk were performed by using atmospheric dispersion models and estimating the effective dose (WHO, 2013).

Environmental consequences of hypothetical accidents were used to evaluate the proposed location of an NPP to be constructed in the United Kingdom (McMahon et al., 2013). In Taiwan, the evacuation zone for a potential NPP accident has also been projected using models (Tang et al., 2016). After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the threat of NPP accidents became not only a regional issue, but also a global concern, indicating the necessity of NPP accident assessments in nearby countries. For example, in the flexRISK project, assessments of hypothetical severe NPP accidents across the European continent were conducted by using atmospheric simulations (Arnold et al., 2011).

In this respect, South Korea, China, and Japan are geographically close to each other. The environmental impact on South Korea after the Fukushima nuclear accident was insignificant. This was due to the dispersion of radionuclides across the Pacific Ocean by the westerly winds in the mid-latitudes, which averted direct radionuclide deposition on the Korean Peninsula (Lee et al., 2015). Unlike in Fukushima, NPPs in China are located on the west side of South Korea. In China, 17 NPPs are in operation and eight NPPs are under construction near the Yellow Sea and East China Sea (IAEA, 2017). In the case of hypothetical accidents at Chinese NPPs, the countries located in northeastern Asia might be directly affected by the dispersion of radionuclides through the westerly winds at mid-latitudes. The Haiyang NPP in China was selected as the case study in this research because it is the nearest NPP to the Korean Peninsula. The Haiyang NPP successfully completed its hydro test in July 2016 and will be set in operation soon. The environmental impact on the Korean Peninsula, in the case of a hypothetical accident at the Haiyang NPP in China, was analyzed using atmospheric dispersion modelling.

Author information

Jae SeongMin, Hee ReyoungKim

School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, 50 UNIST-gil, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 44919, South Korea