Nuclear debate turns into political issue in Korea

A civic group on nuclear safety in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, urged Thursday the permanent closure of the Wolseong nuclear power plant in the region, which will soon reach its 30-year life span.

In a news conference at Gyeongju City Hall, the group said, “As seen in the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power complex in Japan, old nuclear facilities are vulnerable to natural disasters so the extension of life span is out of the question.”

Earlier, civic groups in South Gyeongsang Province, including a Busan-based environmental group and a civic association in Ulsan, held a news conference in front of the Gori nuclear power plant in Busan’s Gijang district Wednesday. They urged a comprehensive review of a plan to build additional nuclear power plants there.

“The cause of the calamity at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the concentrated construction of nuclear facilities in one area and the irrational extension of their life spans,” they said in a statement.

As such, Japan’s nuclear crisis in the aftermath of last week’s massive earthquake has stoked public fears in Korea over the safety of nuclear reactors and prompted news conferences and protests against them.

Seoul plans to significantly cut CO2 emissions by increasing the share of nuclear power at power generation facilities to 41 percent by 2030, but the nuclear debacle in Japan could hinder this.

Opposition is also rising in areas seeking to build nuclear power generation facilities. Residents of Samcheok, Gangwon Province, which has applied to build four nuclear reactors, say the risks of constructing nuclear facilities outweigh the economic benefits.

A bidding committee for nuclear reactors in Samcheok held a rally to promote the building of nuclear facilities, saying 96.9 percent of residents favor it. Another committee against the move announced its opposition to the bid, however, claiming that the approval rate was exaggerated.

Nuclear safety has also become a hot issue in the by-election for governor of Gangwon Province. Ruling Grand National Party candidates favor attracting nuclear plants in stressing their safety, but those of the main opposition Democratic Party are taking a cautious approach.

Bae Yeon-gil, a prospective candidate of the progressive Democratic Labor Party, even called attracting nuclear power plants “a poisoned Holy Grail.” So it is hard to predict how public opinion will change though an overwhelming number of residents and provincial council members in Uljin and Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province, have agreed on attracting those facilities.

In addition, experts say the government will have hard time selecting a location to build a SMART nuclear power generation system, a small and mid-size all-in-one nuclear reactor built with indigenous technology.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute said construction of the first SMART reactor, which will be highly competitive in the global market for nuclear power generation, will be completed in 2016 if a construction site is selected and compensation matters are resolved by 2013.

Choosing the site for the facility could prove difficult, however, due to growing negative sentiment over nuclear facilities in the wake of Japan’s calamity.

Also likely are fears over the safety of a medium and low-level radioactive waste treatment facility in Gyeongju. The safety of the under-construction facility was questioned in June 2009, when a 30-month delay in construction was announced due to the site’s weak terrain.

Scientists, however, say sentiment opposing nuclear power plants is undesirable. Jeong Yong-hoon, a nuclear and quantum engineering professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST, in Daejeon, said, “We need to learn a lesson from the nuclear accident in Japan and public fears over nuclear facilities are understandable,” adding, “Nevertheless, considering carbon emissions and the environment, nuclear power generation is a viable alternative (energy source).”

mhjee@donga.com choi@donga.com