Korean Job Discussion Forums

[byrddogs]

The heat wave continues here in Shanghai as well. 39 with heat index of 47. A little later it will be 43 and 52. How people can stay inside and not run the air is beyond me, and I'm from central Florida.

[World Traveler]

Byrddogs, did you not hear- there was/is a big corruption scandal in Korea going on. Because of this, my public school had to turn off the A/C. First it was not allow to go below 26, then 28, then it was shut off completely (at least in my classroom and office). It is SO hot. It feels like an oven for me now.

SEOUL, South Korea — Like Japan, resource-poor South Korea has long relied on nuclear power to provide the cheap electricity that helped build its miracle economy. For years, it met one-third of its electricity needs with nuclear power, similar to Japan’s level of dependence before the 2011 disaster at its Fukushima plant.

Now, a snowballing scandal in South Korea about bribery and faked safety tests for critical plant equipment has highlighted yet another similarity: experts say both countries’ nuclear programs suffer from a culture of collusion that has undermined their safety. Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes from testing company officials in return for accepting those substandard parts.

Worse yet, investigators discovered that the questionable components are installed in 14 of South Korea’s 23 nuclear power plants. The country has already shuttered three of those reactors temporarily because the questionable parts used there were important, and more closings could follow as investigators wade through more than 120,000 test certificates filed over the past decade to see if more may have been falsified.

In a further indication of the possible breadth of the problems, prosecutors recently raided the offices of 30 more suppliers suspected of also providing parts with faked quality certificates and said they would investigate other testing companies.

“What has been revealed so far may be the tip of an iceberg,” said Kune Y. Suh, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University.

With each new revelation, South Koreans — who, like the Japanese, had grown to believe their leaders’ soothing claims about nuclear safety — have become more jittery. Safety is the biggest concern, but the scandals have also caused economic worries. At a time of slowing growth, the government had loudly promoted its plans to become a major builder of nuclear power plants abroad.

The scandal, Professor Suh said, “makes it difficult to continue claiming to build reliable nuclear power plants cheaply.”

South Koreans say they are already suffering for the industry’s sins. The closing of the three reactors, in addition to another three offline for scheduled maintenance, has led the country’s leaders to order a nationwide energy-saving campaign in the middle of a particularly muggy summer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/world/asia/scandal-in-south-korea-over-nuclear-revelations.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[wishfullthinkng]

it's not so much the heat that is the problem it's the humidity. at 79% humidity you are pretty much walking in a giant pool anywhere you go everytime you step out of an air conditioned room.

it's awful.

[IPayInCash]

I was out today playing ball. I honestly don't think it's that hot. This thread cracks me up. Bunch of wimps. You wouldn't survive in my hometown where it's triple digits all summer long. This is GOOD weather

Now winter... that's another story!

[Captain Corea]

[Julius]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Daegu is famous in Korea for being a sauna in the summer.

In Busan, my in-laws tell us its pretty damn hot these days, even at night. All the concrete retains heat (big city issue).

The contrast between air conditioned places and outside will also hurt you. I mean you sit in a cool coffee shop for an hour or two and then step outside where it can reach 48C with the humidex and you will feel like a ton of bricks have been dropped on you!

[Julius]

[World Traveler]

Does anyone have tips for staying cool (in a place with no AC)? I saw an ad on TV for a scarf that can be dipped in water. Do you guys know about that? Where can I get one? Have you seen them in stores?

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I bought one of those neck cooling water things near Namdaemun. It feels even nicer sitting here under the aircon. Seriously, just invest in one. Plenty of foreigners are leaving this month, so there are a few for sale on the usual sites.

[wishfullthinkng]

for the love of pojo stick jumping jesus let's keep this thread about weather.

and anyone who thinks that there isn't some affect to all the gases humanity is expelling into the atmosphere is an absolute idiot and should go back to basic physics and chemistry classes. no matter what the actual affect is, there will be one. light a fire, what do you get? smoke. does that smoke affect the air and the properties of that air? sure does. now imagine that on an infinitely larger scale.

i'm not an atmospheric expert so i'm not sure what the repercussions of our dependence on oil-burning vehicles will be, but sure as $hit there IS going to be some change and most experts believe it's global warming.

[kimchipig]

[radcon]

Just came back from San Francisco where there was a daily brisk fog rolling in from the Pacifiic. So cool. Coming back here, this humidity hit me hard.