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A site indicating how to take shelter in the event of tsunami waves from an earthquake in front of the Wolseong-1 nuclear reactor in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. (Lee Jeong-a, staff photographer)

There’s a charging station for hydrogen-powered electric vehicles at South Korea’s National Assembly Building in Yeouido, Seoul. The station was installed in September 2019.

Charging stations for hydrogen fuel cells are a classic target of NIMBY opposition. The government’s goal was to install 89 such stations around Korea by last year, but stiff opposition from locals has kept the number to 37 (as of the end of August). It’s highly symbolic that such an unwelcome facility was installed on the illustrious premises of the National Assembly.

There’s no denying that the National Assembly is very different from normal neighborhoods. No doubt, the people handling state affairs are eager to convince us that they would never block a public building for their private interest.

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party has promised to relocate the National Assembly to Sejong City. The idea has the support of a big majority of Democratic lawmakers, so it seems likely to happen. Since the future of the country depends on this sort of balanced regional development, we believe the People Power Party (PPP) will gladly accept the idea, just as when the hydrogen charging station was installed.

While they’re at it, they should make the move permanent. That’s needed if the government is to frame an ambitious long-term plan for how to use the extensive site of the National Assembly Building, which covers 333,553 square meters.

Let’s not get too sentimental about the current building. After all, what are Koreans good for if not bulldozing old buildings and replacing them with something brand new?

If the PPP cooperates with the National Assembly’s move to Sejong City, it’s only fair that we give some consideration to the PPP in repurposing the Yeouido site.

It’s been touching to see the PPP conservatives protest the early shuttering of the Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor as the “murder of the nuclear power industry,” ask the Board of Audit and Inspection to conduct an audit, and then file a criminal complaint with the prosecutors. Their pure-hearted advocacy has inspired me to make a little proposal.

Let’s build a nuclear power plant on the site of the National Assembly. Considering how heartbroken the PPP is over a single reactor being decommissioned two years early, we should build this one to last a full century. Surely, it’s no coincidence that the National Assembly building is capped with a dome, which looks suspiciously like the dome-shaped containment building at a nuclear plant!

Anyone worth their salt knows that the site of the National Assembly in Yeouido fully satisfies all the requirements for a nuclear reactor. Certainly, experts on nuclear power aren’t ignorant of the eminent suitability of the site. That’s why it’s so peculiar that no one has brought up the idea.

The one exception is Jang Jeong-uk, a professor at Japan’s Matsuyama University and a longtime researcher of the nuclear power issue in South Korea and Japan. Let me elaborate on his pet theory, while adding some of my own modest insights.

The first thing a nuclear power plant needs is a plentiful source of water to keep the reactor cool. Yeouido is an island in the middle of the mighty Han River.

For those who are doubtful whether fresh water is adequate, look no further than France’s Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant, on the Rhine river. If anything, fresh water offers more advantages. This past summer, a number of South Korean nuclear reactors along the coast were forced to shut down by a typhoon.

The reason had to do with internal power generation equipment malfunctioning due to salty water carried by the strong winds. Next, there’s the matter of foundational stability. Before you start worrying that an island formed out of sand would have a weak foundation, turn your head and take a gander at the high-rise buildings all around.

A nuclear power plant at the National Assembly site offers no end of benefits. Since the electricity would be produced in Seoul for Seoul, it would carry almost none of the costs associated with transmission equipment, which account for fully one-third of the expenses of nuclear power plant construction. The problem of massive losses of electricity that arise during transmission would also be solved. We wouldn’t see any of those pesky campaigns opposing transmission towers. More than anything, it would offer a way out of energy dependency for Seoul, which uses nearly 20% of South Korea’s power with a self-sufficiency rate of just 3%. Would that be possible if they spurned the opportunity to make the dream of nuclear power a reality?

While we’re building the nuclear power plant, let’s also build a radioactive waste disposal site. Since 1986, the selection of waste disposal sites has been even more of a hassle than selecting nuclear power plant sites. Even today, there’s an ongoing fight under way by residents in Wolseong. We need to provide them with a demonstration of what “public service” really looks like. The attitude of public service is one where you clean up your own mess if you can, and live right there next to it if you can’t. Even if we don’t have the technology to process radioactive waste, how long do we have to listen to the jokes about how a nuclear power plant is a “bathroom without a septic tank”?

Since there’s so much demand for new housing in prime Seoul locations, let’s build deluxe multipurpose apartments all around the nuclear power plant while we’re at it. Make “loving nuclear power” the criteria in determining priority residence, with occupancy offered free of charge as a rule. The PPP lawmakers would get top priority, but let’s not leave out the intellectuals and media figures who keep talking about how nuclear power is the only way of resolving the climate crisis, as well other proponents of nuclear power. Let’s guarantee them units for life, plus the option of bequeathing them to their children tax-free. We should supply them with fresh seafood from Fukushima, also free of charge. In light of their noble altruism and humility, let’s outright prohibit them from turning all this down. Not that this would ever happen, but we should lift the ban for those who change their tune and speak out against nuclear power.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but please don’t include Dr. Jang and me among the tenants. This is all meant to be satire.

By Ahn Yang-chun, editorial writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]