CSO Yoon Tae-yang to Appear as Witness at National Assembly Audit on the 10th
Yoon Tae-yang, Chief Safety Officer (CSO) of Samsung Electronics, said he is "deeply reflecting" on the radiation exposure accident that occurred at Samsung Electronics' Giheung plant last May.
On the 10th, Yoon CSO appeared as a witness at the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee’s audit of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission and its affiliated agencies. In response to a question from Lee Hae-min, a lawmaker from the Justice Party for Innovation, asking whether the radiation exposure accident was due to Samsung Electronics' poor safety management, he answered accordingly.
Earlier, on May 27, at the Giheung plant, two employees were exposed to radiation while repairing a radiation-generating device used to analyze the material composition of semiconductor wafers with X-rays, resulting in exposure exceeding the safety standard by up to 188 times.
Yoon CSO said, "I have been in the semiconductor field for 31 years, and I feel a great sense of responsibility toward my juniors," adding, "I feel responsible for the victims." He explained, "We are establishing fundamental measures to prevent recurrence and are implementing them one by one to ensure such incidents do not happen again."
Lawmaker Lee Hae-min criticized that during the 2019 regular inspection by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Samsung Electronics had planned to appoint additional safety managers but instead reduced the number from three to two.
In response, Yoon CSO said, "We recognize that there is a shortage of radiation safety managers," and added, "We plan to increase the number by more than double compared to the current level."
However, Yoon CSO refrained from answering questions about whether the damage caused by this accident should be classified as injury or illness. He said, "(Regarding illness and injury) there has been intense internal debate on this matter," and added, "We will seek interpretation of the relevant laws, and we will definitely proceed with treatment, compensation for the victims, and measures to prevent recurrence."
Samsung Electronics claims that the burns caused by this radiation exposure accident should be classified as an illness, while some criticize this as an attempt to avoid application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act. The National Samsung Electronics Labor Union is reportedly of the position that this case is an injury caused by an accident and therefore the Serious Accident Punishment Act should be applied.
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