Starting with the orders for two nuclear power plants to be placed in the second half of next year, bidders offering the highest value, instead of the lowest price, will be selected, the Knowledge Economy said Thursday.

As part of efforts to bolster quality control, Seoul will adopt the system in use by the United States, Britain and Japan that appreciates high technological levels as well as low prices, the ministry said.

The new system will be applied for the construction of the fifth and sixth units of the Shin Gori nuclear power station.

Subcontractors for nuclear power plant maintenance will be disqualified from contracts if their oversight has failed to prevent malfunctions three times, after a warning and a suspension.

A team of experts will be organized to examine the technological causes of defects and halts and clarify who is responsible for them, the ministry said.

Safety management will become a more important criterion in assessing the chief executives of the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. and related institutions.

To meet the growing need for manpower up to 2017, the KHNP will increase employment by expanding the recruitment of interns and renewal of contracts with retired staff.

To avoid errors in designing and production, a panel run by the KHNP and multiple plant-designing companies will cross-examine the power stations, according to the ministry.

The government’s plans to prevent the malfunctioning of nuclear power plants came after a series of breakdowns, raising concerns over power shortages in the winter.

In December, a 950,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor in Gori, South Gyeongsang Province, was brought to an abrupt halt due to a temporary overvoltage, 12 hours after a reactor with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts in Uljin came to a standstill due to a momentary failure of a condenser for steam turbines.

In October, another nuclear reactor at the same plant shut down due to a malfunction of the coolant pump.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)