North Korea warns of possible atmospheric nuclear bomb test
Take atmospheric nuclear test threat ‘literally’, North Korea diplomat says Washington SMH, 26 Oct 17 The North Korean foreign minister’s warning of a possible atmospheric nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean should be taken literally, a senior North Korean official has told CNN.
“The foreign minister is very well aware of the intentions of our supreme leader, so I think you should take his words literally,” Ri Yong-pil, a senior diplomat in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, told CNN in an interview aired on Wednesday.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said last month Pyongyang may consider conducting “the most powerful detonation” of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean amid rising tensions with the US.
CIA chief Mike Pompeo said last week that North Korea could be only months away from gaining the ability to hit the US with nuclear weapons.
Experts say an atmospheric test would be a way of demonstrating that capability. All of North Korea’s previous nuclear tests have been conducted underground.
Trump next week will make a visit to Asia during which he will highlight his campaign to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs……
Meanwhile North Korea’s ambassador called on the UN Security Council on Wednesday to urgently discuss the recent US joint naval exercise near the Korean peninsula, calling it preparation for a pre-emptive strike and nuclear war against his country…….http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea-warns-of-pacific-nuclear-test-20171025-gz8cp2.html
Hiroshima Survivor Setsuko Thurlow to accept Nobel Peace Prize
Canadian who survived Hiroshima nuclear bomb to accept Nobel Peace Prize. This is her story http://nationalpost.com/news/world/canadian-who-survived-hiroshima-nuclear-bomb-to-accept-nobel-peace-prize-this-is-her-story
Hiroshima Survivor Setsuko Thurlow Recalls U.S. Bombing
‘We learned how to step over the dead bodies’: Setsuko Thurlow, 85, was 13 when she survived the attack. She has spent her life since campaigning against nuclear weapons Setsuko Thurlow will be in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10 to jointly accept the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of this year’s laureate, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
The 85-year-old Toronto resident is a Hibakusha — a survivor of the atomic attacks on Japan in 1945. Her hometown of Hiroshima was destroyed by the Americans on August 6, 1945.
Thurlow’s sister, burned and bloated from the blast, lived for four days afterwards. When she spoke, what she expressed was a mother’s guilt: Her child had been badly burned. How could she have let it happen?
“It’s not easy to carry these memories,” Thurlow says. “We learned how to step over the dead bodies.” She recalls feeling numb. She couldn’t cry. All she could do was watch, as Japanese soldiers tossed the lifeless bodies of her sister, Ayako, and her four-year-old nephew, Eiji, into a shallow grave, dousing them with gasoline, throwing in a match. Thurlow was 13.
She has spent much of her life since campaigning against nuclear weapons.
Her weapon is her words — and her resolve to keep telling the story. Thurlow sat down with the National Post at her home in Toronto.
Call to Japan’s nuclear regulator to investigate potentially flawed Kobe Steel products in the Japanese nuclear industry
Greenpeace 25th Oct 2017, Japan’s nuclear regulator must take urgent action to launch a
comprehensive investigation into the supply and widespread use of
potentially flawed Kobe Steel products in the Japanese nuclear industry,
Greenpeace and five other NGOs demanded today.
The groups submittedanalysis of Kobe Steel’s supply chain to the nuclear industry together
with a demand letter to The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) commissioner
Toyoshi Fuketa on 24 October.
http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/ja/news/press/2017/pr201710251/
India-USA nuclear arrangement just an American marketing effort – “dead at the very beginning”
India-US nuke deal signed without ground work: Ex-US Senator PTI|Oct 26, 2017, WASHINGTON: The landmark India-US civil nuclear deal was “dead at the very beginning” as it was signed without ground work, a former top Republican Senator has alleged, describing the agreement as more of an “arms deal” for American defence manufacturing companies.
Former Senator Larry Pressler, who has served as chairman of the US Senate’s Arms Control Subcommittee, told a Washington audience that the deal was much-praised “but there is no chance of it being implemented as the liability issues have not been addressed and it has not been worked through.”
He said that the India-US civil nuclear deal “was dead at the very beginning.
Pressler said that there was “no groundwork done” in India or the US on the civil nuclear deal.
The India-US nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in October 2008, ending India’s isolation by the West in the nuclear and space arena. The deal has given a significant boost to India’s nuclear energy production.
Pressler was speaking at an event organised by The Hudson Institute, a top American think-tank, to discuss his latest book ‘Neighbours in Arms: An American Senator s Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent’.
“…There was nothing to it really. If you look into it, it is more of an arms sale agreement,” he alleged.
Pressler claimed the then US president Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi was “largely an arms sale trip”.
“The then president Obama’s last trip to India was an arms sales trip and the poor people of India have to pay for all of these new arms that their country is buying from the US. This is really one of us but it’s a new friendship we’re told. But we have to be very careful. I’m somewhat critical that India has accepted that on those terms,” the former American Senator said. …….https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-us-nuke-deal-signed-without-ground-work-ex-us-senator/articleshow/61236998.cms
South Korea scrapping plans for 6 nuclear reactors, but will continue with 2
South Korea to resume building two new nuclear reactors, but scraps plans for 6 others http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-warning/north-korea-diplomat-says-take-atmospheric-nuclear-test-threat-literally-idUSKBN1CU2EI?il=0, Jane Chung SEOUL (Reuters), 26 Oct 17, – South Korea will resume the suspended construction of two new nuclear reactors from midnight, its energy ministry said on Tuesday, but has torn up plans to build six more reactors as Seoul seeks to meet pledges to cut reliance on nuclear power.
The move will restart work on the two reactors that was frozen after President Moon Jae-in came to power in May on a ticket calling for scaling back nuclear power. It comes after results of a survey unveiled last week found a majority of South Koreans actually backed the projects.
The world’s fifth-biggest nuclear energy user currently runs 24 nuclear reactors, generating a third of the country’s total electricity needs.
“Construction work (for the two new nuclear reactors) will begin immediately after midnight,” Paik Un-gyu, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, told a news briefing in the capital.
But in a bid to press on with Moon’s commitment to boost use of natural gas and renewable sources in the nation’s energy mix, the ministry said Seoul will also cancel all plans to construct a further six nuclear reactors. The number of nuclear reactors operating in South Korea will be cut to a net 14 by 2038 it said.
The ministry said it will use alternative fuels such as solar and wind power to replace the six nuclear reactors with a projected combined capacity of 8.8 gigawatts (GW).
Additionally, the Asia’s fourth-largest economy will not allow extending the lifespan of 14 aging nuclear power stations, totaling 12.5 GW of capacity, the statement said.
The energy ministry said it will reflect changes in the country’s long-term energy mix plan, which is expected to be finalised in November.
Reporting by Jane Chung; Additional reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell
With its rapid growth in solar power, India now a leading clean energy generator
‘India plans big on solar, wind power’ http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/india-plans-big-on-solar-wind-power/article19821527.ece SAKUNALA (KURNOOL DT.), OCTOBER 07, 2017 India has chalked out ambitious plans to generate 84 gigawatts of solar power and 32 gigawatts of wind power by 2022, asserted Anjali Jaiswal, India Director of Natural Resources Defence Council (NDRC), California, on Saturday.
South Korea’s Nuclear Energy Debate
On the one hand, the key schism here has been created by the lack of transparency in planning and implementing nuclear energy policy, which has been heavily dominated by key stakeholders including the central government, KHNP, nuclear academia, and business for several decades. The cover-up of a station blackout incident at the Kori nuclear power plant and the falsification of safety documents for nuclear power plant components are only a few examples among many. Although the knowledge and opinion of experts on nuclear technology should be respected in any case, it is notable that today’s conflicts on South Korea’s nuclear energy future are deeply rooted in the public’s growing distrust of the expert community, which failed to assure the public of their expertise in successfully preventing and controlling a potential nuclear accident…….
The deliberative polling with regard to the resumption of construction on the Shin Kori 5 and 6 reactors had its own limits, such as insufficient time assigned for deliberation and a lack of consideration for the voices of local residents around the plant. Despite these limits, this experiment in deliberative democracy is expected to serve as an important precedent for the new administration’s work on peacefully resolving or managing conflicts over other highly divisive issues, like the storage of spent nuclear fuel. Both pro- and anti-nuclear energy advocates, in addition to the Moon administration, now face a new task: how to effectively inform and persuade the public in this era of deliberative democracy. Politics is an art of persuasion, after all.
Se Young Jang is a nonresident scholar at the Nuclear Policy Program in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. more https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/south-koreas-nuclear-energy-debate/
With North Korean missiles, Japan’s nuclear sites form a terrible danger, of possible accident
Nuclear plants, the Achilles heel in missile tests, remain exposed, By HIROYUKI KAWAI/ The Asahi Shimbun October 24, 2017 North Korea’s missile launches have prompted the government to issue alerts on TV and mobile phones, urging people to take cover in case something goes wrong.
But one puzzling question is why the government has not addressed the risks of keeping nuclear power plants in operation even when missiles are flying over Japan.
North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles 15 times last year and 13 so far this year.
In August, Pyongyang announced plans to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles over the prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi before they splash down in waters around the U.S. territory of Guam.
Instead, North Korea’s latest missile, fired on Aug. 29, flew over Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, and fell into the western Pacific Ocean………
The Japanese government has issued orders to intercept North Korea’s missiles, citing the need to safeguard people’s lives and assets against projectiles falling on Japanese territory. The government is on alert around the clock to issue such orders.
Evacuation drills have been staged in many regions.
When the J-Alert warning was issued soon after North Korea’s missile launches to urge people to take precautions, subway and Shinkansen bullet train services were suspended in some regions.
However, despite this state of high alert, nuclear power plants remain online.
While stressing the missile threat from North Korea, the government has made no mention of the danger to nuclear power plants.
An attack against a nuclear power plant could bring catastrophic consequences.
Experts say the operation of a single reactor for one year produces a level of radioactive material equivalent to 1,000 of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The destruction of a nuclear plant in a missile strike could put the nation’s very survival at stake.
That is why nuclear power plants are likened to nuclear warheads for potential adversaries……..
Even if a nuclear reactor completes an emergency shutdown after a missile launch is confirmed, the nuclear facility’s safety is not guaranteed.
The collapse of other nuclear plant components by a missile would present a formidable challenge for plant operators in dealing with decaying heat from nuclear fuel in the reactor. Averting a meltdown would be almost impossible under these circumstances as was demonstrated by the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
If a missile directly hit a nuclear reactor, we would all know what to expect.
The vulnerability of nuclear plants in light of a possible missile attack has been pointed out in a lawsuit demanding the suspension of operations at a nuclear facility.
When the presiding judge asked the utility the reason for not halting the plant, the company could not provide an immediate response.
North Korea is fully aware that Japan’s Achilles heel in national defense is its nuclear power plants…… If there exists even a 1 percent risk of conflict, nuclear power plants should be taken off-line as a safeguard measure. That is about ensuring the nation’s security…. http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201710240001.html
What a difference a word makes: Japan weakens its annual anti-nuclear resolution!
“The omission of the word ‘any’ implies there could be a case of nuclear weapon use that would not cause inhumane consequences and therefore this type of use might be permitted”
“The Japanese draft resolution looks like one proposed by the United States or any other nuclear weapon states”
Japan waters down text of annual anti-nuclear resolution to imply acceptable use of nukes https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/10/21/national/politics-diplomacy/u-s-pressure-japan-waters-text-anti-nuclear-resolution/#.We0KUo-CzGg, BY MASAKATSU OTA KYODO Japan’s annual diplomatic effort to demonstrate its anti-nuclear credentials and create momentum for disarmament has run into a major obstacle in the form of its most important ally, as well as an atmosphere of division between states possessing atomic weapons and those without them.
A draft resolution recently proposed by the Abe government to the United Nations General Assembly was dramatically watered down under diplomatic pressure from the United States, government sources have revealed.
Last year, its proposed resolution was adopted at the assembly’s plenary session with support from 167 nations, including the United States, while China, North Korea, Russia and Syria opposed and 16 other nations abstained.
In the middle of October, Japan submitted a resolution titled “United action with renewed determination toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.”
Close examination of the text has found a few major changes from past resolutions.
Since 2010, Japan has drafted annual resolutions that include the same common sentence, which emphasizes “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.”
The phrase, “the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons,” has been a keyword used by international movements pursuing a denuclearized world in recent years.
In July, this anti-nuclear campaign culminated in the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations — the first international law that prohibits state parties from developing, testing, possessing and using nuclear weapons in any manner, including “threat of use.”
In the most recently proposed resolution, the government deleted the word “any” from the frequently used phrase, rendering it as “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use.”
It seems a minor rhetorical change, but the deletion of “any” has raised concerns and sparked severe criticism from nuclear disarmament specialists in Japan.
“The omission of the word ‘any’ implies there could be a case of nuclear weapon use that would not cause inhumane consequences and therefore this type of use might be permitted,” professor Tatsujiro Suzuki, director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University, pointed out.
“It can’t be helped if Japan will be regarded (by the international community) as an unfit advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Suzuki said.
“The Japanese draft resolution looks like one proposed by the United States or any other nuclear weapon states,” said Akira Kawasaki, an International Steering Group member of ICAN, or the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
ICAN will receive the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of this year in Oslo for its worldwide grass-roots campaign for the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
During a recent interview, Kawasaki said “the deletion of ‘any’ is so problematic” that several nations which have supported Japan’s annual resolutions in the past may not become a cosponsor of the resolution this year.
That wold pose a serious setback for Japan, which has taken a leading position in the international disarmament based on its strong credentials.
Governmental sources suggested that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump opposes including the word “any” in the draft resolution, and that Japan made the concession to get Washington’s support for the document.
Trump has indicated a desire to accelerate the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in light of North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been deepening security cooperation with the United States and repeatedly requested more U.S. security assurances for Japan, including the “nuclear umbrella.”
Another conspicuous change in the latest Japanese resolution is that it urges only North Korea to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty without delay, rather than the eight nations it named for the previous resolutions.
Japan is a key advocate of accelerating the CTBT, which requires ratification by eight nations including North Korea, China and the United States. The U.S. Republican Party is widely known as a strong opponent of CTBT.
“Our new draft resolution is the result of policy considerations for creating a common ground between nuclear weapon states and nonnuclear weapons states for furthering a practical approach (toward nuclear abolition),” said one official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without specifically explaining why they decided to make the notable changes in the draft resolution.
Stresses on North Korea’s nuclear test mountain – becoming unstable?
After six tests, the mountain hosting North Korea’s nuclear blasts may be exhausted, SMH, Anna Fifield, 21 Oct 17 Tokyo: Have North Korea’s nuclear tests become so big that they’ve altered the geological structure of the land?
Some analysts now see signs that Mount Mantap, the 2200-metre-high peak under which North Korea detonates its nuclear bombs, is suffering from “tired mountain syndrome”.
The mountain visibly shifted during the last nuclear test, an enormous detonation that was recorded as a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in North Korea’s northeast. Since then, the area, which is not known for natural seismic activity, has had three more quakes.
“What we are seeing from North Korea looks like some kind of stress in the ground,” said Paul G Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
“In that part of the world, there were stresses in the ground but the explosions have shaken them up.”
Chinese scientists have already warned that further nuclear tests could cause the mountain to collapse and release the radiation from the blast.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, all of them in tunnels burrowed deep under Mount Mantap at a site known as the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility. Intelligence analysts and experts alike use satellite imagery to keep close track on movement at the three entrances to the tunnels for signals that a test might be coming.
After the latest nuclear test, on September 3, Kim Jong Un’s regime claimed that it had set off a hydrogen bomb and that it had been a “perfect success”.
After the latest nuclear test, on September 3, Kim Jong Un’s regime claimed that it had set off a hydrogen bomb and that it had been a “perfect success”.
Images captured by Airbus, a space technology company that makes earth observation satellites, showed the mountain literally moving during the test. An 85-acre area on the peak of Mount Mantap visibly subsided during the explosion, an indication of both the size of the blast and the weakness of the mountain.
Since that day, there have been three much smaller quakes at the site, in the 2 to 3 magnitude range, each of them setting fears that North Korea had conducted another nuclear test that had perhaps gone wrong. But they all turned out to be natural.
If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things.
Wang Naiyan, former chairman of the China Nuclear Society
That has analysts Frank V. Pabian and Jack Liu wondering if Mount Mantap is suffering from “tired mountain syndrome”, a diagnosis previously applied to the Soviet Union’s atomic test sites.
“The underground detonation of nuclear explosions considerably alters the properties of the rock mass,” Vitaly V. Adushkin and William Leith wrote in a report on the Soviet tests for the United States Geological Survey in 2001. This leads to fracturing and rocks breaking, and changes along tectonic faults.
Earthquakes also occurred at the US’ nuclear test site in Nevada after detonations there.
“The experience we had from the Nevada test site and decades of monitoring the Soviet Union’s major test sites in Kazakhstan showed that after a very large nuclear explosion, several other significant things can happen,” Richards said. This included cavities collapsing hours or even months later, he said.
Pabian and Liu said the North Korean test site also seemed to be suffering.
“Based on the severity of the initial blast, the post-test tremors, and the extent of observable surface disturbances, we have to assume that there must have been substantial damage to the existing tunnel network under Mount Mantap,” they wrote in a report for the specialist North Korea website 38 North.
But the degradation of the mountain does not necessarily mean that it would be abandoned as a test site – just as the United States did not abandon the Nevada test site after earthquakes there, they said. Instead, the US kept using the site until a nuclear test moratorium took effect in 1992.
For that reason, analysts will continue to keep a close eye on the Punggye-ri test site to see if North Korea starts excavating there again – a sign of possible preparations for another test.
The previous tests took place through the north portal to the underground tunnels, but even if those tunnels had collapsed, North Korea’s nuclear scientists might still use tunnel complexes linked to the south and west portals, Pabian and Liu said.
Chinese scientists have warned that another test under the mountain could lead to an environmental disaster. If the whole mountain caved in on itself, radiation could escape and drift across the region, said Wang Naiyan, the former chairman of the China Nuclear Society and senior researcher on China’s nuclear weapons programme.
“We call it ‘taking the roof off’. If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things,” Wang told the South China Morning Post last month……http://www.smh.com.au/world/after-six-tests-the-mountain-hosting-north-koreas-nuclear-blasts-may-be-exhausted-20171021-gz5ixm.html
Campaigns focus on economy and Constitution, but nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima sees other priorities
Typhoon Lan Targets Never-Ending Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site Area With High Waves, Wind, Rains
Typhoon Lan and Japan Nuclear Power Stations.
North Korea, within months, able to launch nuclear weapon at the US
North Korea could launch nuclear weapon at the US within months, CIA director warns THE CIA director has issued a scary warning on rogue state’s intentions as Russia urges not to back North Korea into a corner. news.com.au 21 Oct 17, Debra Killalea@DebKillalea NORTH Korea is just months away from perfecting its nuclear weapons capabilities and could strike the United States within months.
That is the grim warning given by CIA Director Mike Pompeo who said the secretive state was getting closer to achieving its nuclear ambitions.
Mr Pompeo told a national security forum in Washington that US needed to behave as if “we are on the cusp of them achieving their objective of being able to strike the United States”.
“When you’re now talking about months, our capacity to understand that at the detailed level is in some sense irrelevant,” he said.
“Whether it happens on Tuesday or a month from Tuesday, we are at a time where the president has concluded that we need a global effort to ensure that Kim Jong-un doesn’t have that capacity.”
However he said there’s a difference between having the ability to fire a single nuclear missile and the capability of producing large amounts of material and developing an arsenal of such weapons.
During the same conference, US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser HR McMaster said the country was in a race to resolve the crisis.
“We are not out of time,” he told the forum, organised by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
“But we are running out of time,” he said.
‘BACKED INTO A CORNER
It comes as Russia called for support for a plan between Moscow and Beijing to end US and South Korean military drills in exchange for North Korea halting its missile testing.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a dialogue would prevent a huge humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeated his calls for calm.
While condemning Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, Putin said the stand-off should be settled through dialogue and without “cornering North Korea, threatening to use force or going down to outright boorishness and swearing.”
….. US WILL ‘MEET MOST MISERABLE DEATH’
Meanwhile North Korea launched new violent threats against the US and South Korea overnight, promising any nations that provoke or invade the country would “meet the most miserable death”.
Speaking via KCNA, the rogue nation said the joint US-South Korean naval drill in the waters off the Korean Peninsula risked nuclear war……. http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/north-korea-could-launch-nuclear-weapon-at-the-us-within-months-cia-director-warns/news-story/ee8f1873f2938aec5ee45ff126b43832
If Trump attacks North Korea, China would enter the war against USA
CHINA’S CHILLING MESSAGE TO DONALD TRUMP AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY, InQUISTR, Alan Ewart, 19 Oct 17, “…..The prospect of USA vs, North Korea war is terrifying. According to Global Firepower, the hermit nation has a standing army almost one million strong. North Korea also has a trained military reserve that is 5.5 million strong, and which could engage the U.S. in a Vietnam style guerrilla war for decades.
This leads some to think that a preemptive nuclear strike against North Korea would be the only effective way of waging war against a nation that is building a nuclear arsenal. Therein lies the danger, one which could easily tip the world into a nuclear World War 3. A nuclear attack on North Korean capital Pyongyang would kill millions and would be very likely to draw China into World War 3.
As you can see from the World Time and Date calculator, Pyongyang is just over 100 miles from Dandong, a Chinese city of almost one million people. Dandong would, therefore, be well within the fallout zone that would be caused by a nuclear strike on Pyongyang. Something that Chinese premier Xi Jinping will not tolerate.
As reported by the Daily Star, Xi Jinping has issued a chilling warning to the international community. In a speech at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party President Xi warned that the Chinese army will be able to “prevail in both conventional and new theatres of operation.” China has the worlds biggest standing army with over 2.5 million regular troops. President Xi is currently pouring billions into new military hardware and boosting troop numbers.
China is North Korea’s main trading partner and only real ally, and there are real fears that Beijing would join any war on the side of Pyongyang. Chinese leaders have repeatedly told Donald Trump to “cool it” over North Korea as they try to find a peaceful resolution to the Korean conflict.
Trump is due to meet President Xi next month when he visits Asia. Let’s hope that the leaders can find a way to resolve the issue without the world being plunged into World War 3. https://www.inquisitr.com/4565345/world-war-3-china-chilling-message-donald-trump-news-world-community/
South Korea still to phase out nuclear power: commission voted to complete present construction
Proposed resumption of nuclear reactors to delay Moon’s new energy policy http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2017/10/20/0301000000AEN20171020004651315.html SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) — President Moon Jae-in was forced to push back the start of his new nuclear-free energy policy Friday after a public debate commission recommended resuming the construction of two unfinished nuclear reactors he earlier promised to scrap.
The resumption of the construction, however, may have limited effect on the president’s energy policy, which seeks to ultimately build a nuclear energy-free nation.
The commission said 59.5 percent of 471 citizens and experts who took part in the debate voted in favor of completing the Shin Kori-5 and Shin Kori-6 reactors, while 40.5 percent sided with the president to remove the unfinished reactors for good.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said it respects the commission’s recommendation, adding it will soon take necessary measures to resume the construction of the two nuclear reactors.
Such a swift response from Cheong Wa Dae comes after the president earlier said he would respect the outcome of the debate, noting it would mark the start of what he called “deliberative democracy.”
“The process of reaching a social consensus requires a lot of time and money. But I believe it is a valuable process, considering the social cost we must bear when such decisions are made unilaterally,” the president said earlier.
Scrapping the two new nuclear reactors was a key election pledge of Moon.
Despite the inevitable delay in the start of Moon’s new energy policy, the outcome of the monthslong debate on the fate of the two new nuclear reactors will likely have little or no effect on the president’s ongoing plan to build a nation free of nuclear energy.
The president has noted his new energy policy did not seek to immediately shut down nuclear reactors that are currently in operation, but to do so when they run out their natural designed lifespan, a process he said would take at least four decades, considering the 40-year lifespan of the reactors recently built.
The Shin Kori reactors will also operate for at least 40 years following their completion, which is expected to take a few more years.
Before it was disrupted in July, the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. said the construction of the two reactors was 28.8 percent complete. Work on them began in 2016.
Officials at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae insisted the president’s new energy policy was launched the day he took office in May, saying the policy also relied on not building any more nuclear reactors.
The public debate commission also hinted that its recommendation on the fate of the Shin Kori reactors may have been influenced by economic reasons, noting 53.2 percent of those who took part in the process voted in favor of reducing nuclear energy while 35.5 percent said the number of nuclear reactors should be maintained at the current level.
Only 9.7 percent said the number of nuclear reactors should increase, the commission said.
The government earlier said scrapping the construction of the Shin Kori reactors may cost more than US$2 billion for the payment of damages to developers and builders.
The president also remains firm on building a nuclear energy-free nation, the Cheong Wa Dae officials said.
“Up until now, the lives and safety of the people have been put in the backseat when establishing and implementing energy policies, while environmental considerations have also been overlooked,” Moon said earlier.
“To build a safe Republic of Korea and keep pace with the global trend, we … have to implement a great shift in our national energy policy that will reduce nuclear and coal-fired power plants, and implement and increase (the use of) clean, safe future energy.”
1 This Month
of the week – THE ONENESS of HUMANITY
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
1st July – Webinar Waste of Space: The Environmental Harm of Military and Civil Space Activity st July, 7 pm
Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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