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Why is a transition necessary?

Korea is no longer an earthquake-safe zone

Current response measures focus on preventing casualties

 

Emergency medical care and relief play a key role in disasters

Importance of seismic isolation for data centers and other major facilities increases

Urgent need to apply to major economic and social facilities

 

[Daehan Kyungjae = Reporter Kim Min-soo] # On October 15, 2022, at 3:30 PM, a fire broke out at the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center where Kakao is located. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but social infrastructure services such as KakaoTalk, a messenger service with 50 million people, as well as Kakao T, Kakao Map, Kakao Subway, Kakao Pay, Daum Cafe, Daum News, and Daum Email were paralyzed for nearly 10 hours, and some of the disruptions continued until the afternoon of the next day.

 

Although the damage was not caused by an earthquake, it is a clear example of the severity of social function paralysis. If a strong earthquake were to occur in the metropolitan area where data centers are concentrated, the scale of the damage would be unimaginable. This is why seismic design is required for data centers.

 

Korea is no longer a safe zone from earthquakes. The frequency and intensity of earthquakes are gradually increasing. Experts predict that a strong earthquake of up to magnitude 7.0 could occur in Korea in the future. As earthquakes occur more frequently and more strongly than before, the need for ‘seismic isolation design’ that can maintain the functionality of facilities is increasing for major structures such as high-tech industrial facilities, rather than the existing ‘seismic design’ that aims to prevent casualties.

 

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration on the 18th, the total number of earthquakes in Korea from 1978, the first year of observation, to 2023 is 2,192. The number of earthquakes that occurred in 2014 alone was 49, but it increased sharply to 252 in 2016.

 

Following the 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do in 2016 and the 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Pohang in 2017, an earthquake occurred this year in Buan, Jeollabuk-do (4.8 magnitude). In addition, as the outlook for the Nankai Earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 in neighboring Japan is emerging, significant repercussions are expected for Korea as well.

 

The problem is the level of earthquake preparedness in Korea. In Korea, the government’s earthquake countermeasures are focused on earthquake-resistant design aimed at preventing casualties. The current law introduced in 1988 mandates earthquake-resistant design for all houses with two or more floors or more than 200㎡. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the earthquake-resistant rate (seismic performance acquisition rate) of national infrastructure such as roads, railways, and power plants and public facilities such as hospitals and schools nationwide was 78.1% as of last year, while the earthquake-resistant rate for private buildings was only 16.3%. There is no way to force earthquake-resistant reinforcement, which costs at least tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won, for private buildings built before 1988.

 

Not only earthquake-resistant design, but also seismic isolation design is insufficient.

 

Domestic earthquake-resistant design standards aimed at preventing casualties assume that buildings can withstand earthquake shock for a certain period of time, but considerable damage occurs to buildings, while seismic isolation design is a more advanced earthquake response design method that aims for elastic behavior that does not cause any damage to buildings at all, and not only prevents building collapse but also maintains internal functions.

 

The seismic isolation is applicable to data centers that must protect not only computer devices but also facilities during an earthquake to ensure smooth data supply, hospitals that serve as emergency medical and evacuation relief bases immediately after a disaster, nuclear power-related facilities that need to protect radioactive and hazardous materials from earthquakes and prevent secondary disasters, cultural assets and historically valuable buildings, and vertiports for urban air traffic (UAM) scheduled for commercialization in 2040.

 

However, seismic isolation design in Korea is applied to only 20 out of 7 million buildings, which is less than 1%. Seismic isolation structures are starting to be applied to recently increased data centers.

 

An official from the seismic isolation industry explained, “General seismic design maintains the shape of the building to prevent casualties, but cannot prevent damage to internal facilities.” He added, “In particular, in the case of data centers that operate 24 hours a day, if the center suddenly stops due to an earthquake, users across the country may experience inconvenience. These are representative buildings that should actively consider seismic isolation design for business continuity.” Experts advise that we should legislate mandatory seismic design for core buildings that can maintain internal functions, and in the long term, we should not spare the initial investment cost, which is 10% more expensive than earthquake resistance, by improving earthquake safety insensitivity.

 

Another seismic industry insider emphasized, “Until the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, earthquakes were considered a ‘wisp of lightning’ from the perspective of building owners, but now earthquake risk is becoming a reality in our country as well,” and “It is urgent to apply seismic isolation to core facilities that have significant economic and social repercussions, as they can lead to complex disasters in the event of an earthquake.”​