Korea to introduce new safety standards for secondary battery plants

[Photo by Yonhap]

The South Korean government will introduce new safety standards tailored specifically for secondary battery manufacturing plants, a move aimed at removing excessive regulations in the future growth engine sector.

Under measures announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance during an emergency economic meeting of related ministers on Thursday, the government plans to improve regulations that do not take into account the unique characteristics of high-tech industries, including semiconductors and secondary batteries.

The government will establish new safety standards for facilities handling hazardous materials specialized for the secondary battery manufacturing process.

Special exceptions will be made for certain safety standards to allow companies to efficiently invest in equipment.

Currently, secondary battery manufacturing factories that handle hazardous materials are subject to general safety standards, leading to frequent delays in factory construction and significant costs due to the application of excessive safety standards.

Under the current general safety standards, the main structural components of a factory, including walls, pillars, and floors, are required to have fire-resistant structures to withstand fire.

Additionally, the standards specify that partition walls should be made of reinforced concrete with a thickness of at least 70 millimeters. However, the new standards specialized for secondary battery manufacturing plants will not require the construction of partition walls.

Furthermore, the general safety standards ban glass installations, but the new standards will allow for the installation of mesh or fireproof glass.

Also, the general standards require slopes, but the specialized standards allow for no slopes if measures are taken to prevent leakage of hazardous materials.

The government will also add polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coatings to the existing list of pipe materials, which includes metal or polyurethane, further reducing the burden on companies entering the semiconductor production process.

The government had previously announced a legislative notice of related measures in August. It will classify the semiconductor scrubber, a hazardous gas purification facility, as a reaction facility without the obligation to be equipped with thermometers.

Scrubbers are obligated to attach thermometers if they are classified as incineration facilities, but not if they are classified as reaction facilities.

The permit and reporting procedures for air pollutant emission rights will also be simplified, which is expected to ease the burden on large-scale device industries such as semiconductors, which often require the installation and closure of production equipment.

The government will also recognize an exception to the separate contracting obligation for firefighting works related to national high technology. This means that the firefighting work will be allowed to be integrated with the overall facility work.

“We have significantly improved unreasonable regulations based on the suggestions made during meetings with companies,” the ministry said. “We will promptly implement these measures to support the enhancement of the competitiveness of advanced industries.”