Fifteen people have been placed under investigation for suspected professional negligence during a devastating passenger jet crash in Muan County last December, the deadliest plane crash on record in South Korea, the Jeonnam Provincial Police said Saturday.
The police are looking into the severity of liability for negligence to decide whether to arrest the 15 employees from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as well as Korea Airports Corporation and other companies involved in the construction of localizers at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla - the site of the crash.
The passenger plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew members crashed while attempting to land at the Muan International Airport at around 09:07 local time on Jan 29 last year.
The Jeju Air flight 7C2216 from Bangkok, Thailand, veered off the runway and crashed into the outer wall of the runway, with its fuselage destroyed in half and catching fire.
The authorities confirmed 179 deaths, with only two survivors rescued from the plane crash.
South Korea's plane crash investigation involves 15 airport, government employees
Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.
"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.
For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.
"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.
The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.
China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member
