hankyoreh

The radiation scare that has swept over the islands of Japan in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami is a clear example of the paper-thin difference between a nuclear power plant and an atomic bomb. No matter how safely and solidly we build these plants, there is nothing to be done about the tremendous might of nature. With just a single natural disaster, such a facility can turn at any moment into a fearsome instrument of carnage.
There is also cause for such concern in South Korea. We have also seen an increase in earthquake frequency over the past several years, and the earthquakes have been growing in scale. Not only are most of our nuclear power plants located on the East Sea coast, but investigation findings reported to the academic sector indicate that an active fault lies beneath the sea in the area near the Wolseong plant in North Gyeongsang Province.
In spite of this, the administration insists, “South Korea’s power plants are designed to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 6.5, which is the highest readiness posture in light of the geological characteristics of the Korean Peninsula.” What the administration is forgetting is that this very overconfidence regarding safety harbors the seeds of catastrophe.
On top of this, the Lee Myung-bak administration has shown such an excessive fixation on nuclear power plants that critics have begun to talk about a “Nuclear Power Plant Republic.” Bizarrely, it has been feverishly promoting nuclear power plants under the guise of “low-carbon green growth” and “sustainable energy.”
This fixation has been intensified further since the controversial nuclear power plant contract South Korea secured from the United Arab Emirates. The administration has even come up with the term “nuclear power renaissance” in pushing these plants as a leading next-generation export commodity. It has also announced plants to build an additional 11 plants domestically with the goal of increasing the percentage of power generation from nuclear energy from its current level of about 24 percent to 41 percent by 2030.
But Japan’s catastrophe provides a clear picture as to how dangerous such nuclear power plant-dependent energy policy is. And the potential risk grows even more if one considers the uneasy political situation on the peninsula. However difficult it may be now, it is essential that we abandon this policy centering on the expansion of nuclear power and focus our energies instead on the expansion of environmentally friendly and renewable energies.
President Lee took part in the UAE nuclear power plant groundbreaking ceremony even with evidence of Japan’s power plant disaster before his eyes. Internally, he and the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) may have lamented the fact that this calamity took some of the luster away from the event. If their perception of the situation is so poor, it is truly unfortunate.
This incident represents nature’s stern warning against the foolishness of humans who trust blindly in the use of dangerous nuclear materials as modern conveniences. If we ignore this warning, we put ourselves at risk to a massive catastrophe that could strike at any time. We hope President Lee and the administration take this as the opportunity for some profound reflection and a change in understanding on nuclear power plant policy.
　　
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