Two South Korean nuclear power plant workers were burned by heated, radioactive liquid waste, the energy ministry said on Tuesday. Their injuries were not considered to be life-threatening, it said. The two were burned on Monday when they and two others were helping repair a device that transforms liquid waste into a material for storage at a nuclear reactor in the southern port city of Pusan, the ministry said. The injured workers, whose names were not disclosed, will be treated as outpatients and checked to see if they suffered radiation poisoning, it said.

Broadcaster MBC said the workers' injuries were severe and that all four employees were exposed to radiation, citing officials at the nuclear plant. The ministry will send a panel to investigate and declined to give further details of the accident at the Gori 1 reactor.

A similar inquiry was launched after 22 workers at a nuclear plant in Seoul were exposed to radiation after a coolant leak in 1999. South Korea produces about 40 percent of its electricity at its 20 nuclear plants, ranking sixth in output in the world.
(Planet Ark, 21/03/2007)