SEOUL, April 22 (UPI) -- South Korea's government says the country's oldest nuclear reactor will be allowed to restart after safety checks despite public pressure to close it down.
A minor mechanical problem caused the 33-year-old Gori-1 reactor near Busan, South Korea's largest port city, to go into emergency shutdown last week.
Defying mounting demands for its closure, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said the reactor would be restarted after completion of the checks, Yonhap News Agency reported Friday.
"The government will complete the safety check as quickly as possible and allow it to restart immediately if no problems are found in operating," Kim said during a weekly government policy meeting.
"The government will thoroughly check all problems that have been raised and make a strict, scientific judgment about the safety of the reactor," he said.
The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety has said the reactor is capable of operating safely for another decade, but public pressure to close it has been mounting since the massive earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station last month, Yonhap reported.
