The Present and the Future of the Korea Electric Power Industry Code

Korea Electric Power Industry Code (KEPIC), a set of integrated standards applicable to the design, construction and operation of electric power facilities including nuclear power plants, has been developed on the basis of referring to the prevailing U.S. codes and standards which had been applied to the electric power facilities in Korea. Being the developing and managing organization of KEPIC, Korea Electric Association (KEA) published its first edition in 1995, the second in 2000 and the latest in 2005. KEPIC has been applied to the construction of nuclear power plants since 1997 in Korea. Along with the effectuation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) in 1995, the international trend related to codes and standards is changing rapidly. KEA is, therefore, making its utmost efforts so as for KEPIC to keep abreast with the changing environment in international arena. KEA notified ISO/IEC Information Centre of its acceptance of the Code of Good Practice in the Agreement on TBT. Also the 2005 edition of KEPIC was published to be retrofitted according to the ISO/IEC Guide 21-Adoption of International Standards as regional or national standards. On the other hand, KEA is continuously performing to study on the improvement of KEPIC requirements. Such KEA’s efforts will help KEPIC correspond with international standards such as ISO/IEC standards, and internationally recognized standards such as ASME codes and standards. Furthermore KEA will expedite the publication of the bilingual edition of KEPIC at 2010 as per the globalization plan and KEA hopes that KEPIC can assist Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. (KHNP) in exportation of Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP) such as OPR-1000 and APR-1400 by the bilingual edition.Copyright © 2008 by ASME