hankyoreh

The government announced yesterday that it carried out a selection of sites for prospective new nuclear power plants, settling on the two candidate sites of Yeongdeok in North Gyeongsang and Samcheok in Gangwon. The sites are capable of housing up to eight reactors, with a final decision reportedly set for late 2012 following environmental considerations. This plan for a new plant is reckless adventurism that goes against a worldwide move away from nuclear power, and it needs to be abandoned now.
The two sites selected are both places chosen in the past as locations for nuclear power plants and radioactive waste disposal sites, only to have the plans withdrawn in the face of resident objections. Resistance is reportedly considerable this time as well, with only half of residents or fewer in favor. Once again, the government is stirring up regional conflicts and disorder. It must not push this selection through in defiance of the wishes of local residents.
Since the Fukushima disaster in Japan earlier this year, the worldwide trend has been one of post-nuclear policy. Germany answered the calls of its citizens by agreeing to a plan for phasing out all 17 of its currently operating nuclear power plants by 2022. Thanks to continued efforts to increase availability, renewable energy sources have accounted for 20% of electric power this year, surpassing nuclear power for the first time. This is symbolic of the realistic possibilities for renewable energy. Japan, which endured the destruction of a plant that was supposed to withstand an 8.0 earthquake at Fukushima this year, is currently taking steps to reduce its dependence on nuclear power and switch to a more distributed energy system. The reason countries like Switzerland and Italy have joined in the post-nuclear move has to do with the bitter collapse of the "nuclear power is safe" myth following two major disasters in the past three decades at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
When the burden of management and disposal is factored in, nuclear power turns out to be not only uneconomical but an enormous burden on future generations. Nowhere in the world is there technology for safely disposing of high-level waste, which is reduced little if at all when reprocessed. The reason the Korea Environment Institute, a state research organization, recently released a report stating that we should stop extending the lifespans of our nuclear power plants and refrain from building new ones is because it was concerned about the "sustainable development of future generations." Once we start building new plants, not only is it hard to stop, but the danger of an accident increases accordingly.
Some experts say South Korea has the potential to cut about 30% of its entire energy use. If this is the case, we do not have to build any new plants. The site selection plans should be withdrawn, and efforts should be made toward reaching a new consensus on energy policy.

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