nuclear-news

The individual appointed as the commission’s chair, a position comparable Cabinet minister, is Seoul National University Emeritus Professor of Nuclear Engineering Kang Chang-soon, a leading figure in the nuclear power industry. Kang reportedly held the post of vice chairman of the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum, an organization of nuclear power industry figures, only to resign that post just after his nomination. He previously served as an outside director for Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, a firm that builds nuclear power plants, and as an advisory committee member for the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company, which manages them. He has taken on numerous projects commissioned by nuclear power companies and stated his belief that South Korea should increase its reliance on nuclear power to 70%.

The presidential commission was established after growing nuclear safety fears in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The aim was to establish independence in security matters by having not only nuclear power experts but specialists in the environment, health care, public safety, and a wide range of other areas participate. In both Japan and South Korea, a nuclear power industry motivated by economic concerns and expert groups linked with massive state research efforts are bound up in a relationship of interdependence with the government officials and politicians at the helm of the nuclear power system. Kang’s appointment does not accord with the goal of ensuring fairness and transparency in the safety regulations previously entrusted to the group some have called the “nuclear power mafia.” There are even concerns that this organization created to regulate nuclear power plant safety will merely serve to bolster the industry and serve as its shield…..

 Speaking at a senior-level United Nations meeting on nuclear safety last month, President Lee Myung-bak said, “The Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster must not become a reason for abandoning nuclear power, and at the current juncture the use of nuclear power is unavoidable.”

As these words indicate, he is at the forefront of the push to increase use of nuclear power. His true aim appears to be increasing the number of “South Korean-model” nuclear power plant orders through a pro forma gesture to meet international standards demanding that a separate organization regulate safety.

Fukushima showed us that nuclear power is no longer safe energy, nor is it cheap energy, given the enormous social costs. It is worrisome, then, that our government is focused solely on immediate profits while putting safety concerns on the back burner. http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/502498.html