hankyoreh

Gangwon Province related to the referendum the previous day on hosting a nuclear plant

After the government announced its 7th Power Supply Plan, which will depend on the construction of two more nuclear reactors by 2029, residents of Gangwon Province are becoming more vocal in their demands to cancel the construction of nuclear reactors in Samcheok.

On June 17, the Gangwon Province branch of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) held a press conference in front of Samcheok Post Office calling for the national government to scrap its plans to build nuclear reactors in the city and to revoke its designation of the planned areas.

“In a popular referendum about building nuclear reactors that was carried out in October of last year, 85% of the citizens of Samcheok voted against the plan. A majority of Samcheok citizens are united in their position that building nuclear reactors poses an unacceptable threat to their lives and safety,” a speaker at the press conference said.

“The government means to push ahead with the construction of the nuclear reactors because of its stubborn insistence that nuclear power is the business of the state and is not subject to a popular referendum, but in the end no government can defeat its own people. We will join with the people of Samcheok to block the nuclear reactors,” said Shim Gi-jun, head of the NPAD’s Gangwon Province branch.

On June 16, Lee Yi-jae, 56, Saenuri Party representative for the cities of Donghae and Samcheok; Kim Yang-ho, mayor of Samcheok; and Chung Jin-gwon, head of the Samcheok city council met with Moon Jae-do, Second Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, in the committee room of the National Assembly‘s Trade, Industry, and Energy Committee and asked that plans to build nuclear reactors in Samcheok be omitted from the 7th Power Supply Plan, which will be confirmed at the end of this month.

“Delaying the final decision about the location of the nuclear reactors for three years until 2018 will provoke conflict and division between different regions. There is precedent for this, since Deoksan Village was removed from the list of possible nuclear reactor sites in 1999 and the construction of a nuclear waste disposal facility was shelved in 2005. I hope that public receptiveness will be given the highest priority and that the plans to build a nuclear reactor in Samcheok will be scrapped,” Lee said.

The Committee Fighting against the Samcheok Nuclear Reactor recently issued a statement of its own responding to the government’s announcement of the 7th Power Supply Plan. “The nuclear reactor construction plan should not be slyly delayed until 2018 but should be struck from the 7th Power Supply Plan at once. If the plans to build nuclear reactors are not revoked, we will step up our fight against the government,” the committee said.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is set to submit the 7th Power Supply Plan to the National Assembly around June 20. If the plan is approved, it will be officially announced around the end of the month.

By Park Soo-hyeok, Gangwon correspondent

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