Wesley's Tool-Box

Here's an old one. Dong-A Pharmaceuticals contacted me in early 2002 about doing a newspaper ad. They were doing a series of ads featuring young people with extraordinary achievements, and how Bacchus, the company's flagship energy drink, was supporting such spirits. They showed me the concept design of the ad (on the right), which indicated that I was to be the second person on the series. After several hours of photo session, the studio came up with a finalized photo (small inset photo on the lower right) to be used for the actual ad. I went home and waited for the ad to appear, but eventually I was told that the ad run was canceled. A couple of months later the second series of the ad appeared, featuring a college student that flew fighter jets several times. Oh well. Click on the photo for a larger image.

Some of you may have noticed the 'Wesley on IMDB' link on the right sidebar that appeared about a week ago. Yes, I actually have my own page, like all those celebrities out there. Well, the page is now officially accessible from IMDB (Internet Movie Database) website by searching my name (try 'woo-duk', my Korean name). I'll be submitting more info as time permits.

The first thing that came into view as we entered the exhibition room was a map of the world showing where the nuclear reactors have been built. The guide explained that, with 20 reactors, Korea ranked 6th in nuclear power generation capacity, trailing Germany. United States came out on top but they haven't really built new ones in about 3 decades. Two things were evident about Korea regarding this ranking: its reliance on nuclear power is significant, and its overall energy consumption is quite large as well.

After passing by multitudes of shops prominently featuring gulbi in front for a few minutes, we drove through rice fields that featured transmission towers scattered here and there. Then we noticed employee apartments for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Korea Plant Service & Engineering (KPS), a sure sign that there's a power plant nearby. Eventually, a familiar dome-shaped building started appearing at the edge of the horizon.

As a part of the three-week training camp for the new interns at Korea Power Exchange (KPX), we were taken to actual power plant sites. I'm guessing that this was designed let us get the feeling of the real hardware behind the machineries that produce electricity for the nation. It would also double as a reviewing process for all the studies we did in the training sessions during the past week. Last week, we went to the Taean thermal power plant, conveniently located next to the training center we're staying for the second and third week of the training, Korea Power Learning Institute (KPLI). This week, we went to a place tad farther away. A place that shares a lot of similarities with a thermal power plant but also quite different in many aspects - a nuclear power plant.