Nuclear power in Menghe
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History
In 1968, four years after the end of the Menghean War of Liberation, the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe established the state-owned Menghean Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC), which was tasked with surveying the country's territory for possible uranium deposits, constructing uranium enrichment facilities, and developing a domestic nuclear reactor.
General-Secretary Sim Jin-hwan was a major supporter of nuclear power for peaceful purposes, and under his leadership the MNPC increased its research and development efforts. The country secured permission to import a 4-Megawatt research reactor from Letnia in 1972, and brought it online in 1976. In 1978, the country began work on a domestic research reactor, which came online in 1983. Neither of these reactors were hooked up to the national power grid; their main purpose was to build domestic experience with reactor design, and to produce radioactive isotopes for Menghe's covert nuclear weapons program.
Work on a civilian pressurized water reactor in Anchŏn began in 1984, as part of a planned two-reactor power station. Economic hardship and staff instability resulting from Ryŏ Ho-jun's political purges brought construction to a halt during the early stages, as most engineers behind the project were transferred to weapons production or sent to work camps in the countryside.
Following the Decembrist Revolution, Choe Sŭng-min's government ordered engineering teams to resume work on the Anchŏn plant, which was linked to the civilian power grid in 1997. Construction also began on civilian nuclear plants near Sunju and Yŏng'an, as part of a twenty-year plan to bring one civilian reactor online each year. This program focused on placing new nuclear power facilities on the Chŏllo plain and Meng river basin, which were far from coal-producing areas but were experiencing rapid economic growth.
Accelerated construction schedules and the rapid transition from experimental reactors to civilian power stations led to serious safety issues in Menghe's first set of Generation II reactors. Following the Chimgu nuclear accident in 2003, the General-Directorate for Energy shut down all operational reactors and instituted a temporary freeze on all new construction so that inspectors could review the causes of the Chimgu accident and draw up a list of safety corrections.
Construction resumed in 2006, after the report was finished, and retrofits of existing reactors began in the same year. During the temporary shutdown, coal power had filled the vacuum created by Menghe's ballooning energy needs, contributing to serious air pollution issues in major cities. Despite higher public opposition to nuclear power, the Menghean Socialist Party doubled down on its commitment to expanding the nuclear sector, aiming for 30% of the country's electricity to come from nuclear plants by 2030. By the late 2010s, the country was beginning construction on five new reactors every year, with a planned rate of ten reactors per year in the 2020s. Menghe has also emerged as a leader in the design of new nuclear reactor models, particularly models optimized for high safety and fuel efficiency.