Ceaseless Controversy
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled on February 7 that the Nuclear Safety & Security Commission cancel its recent decision to extend the service life of Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant 1 located in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province for another 10 years. The commission is planning to lodge an appeal.
The nuclear power plant was put into operation back in 1983 with a maximum service life of 30 years. The operation of the power plant was halted in November 2012 and then the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corporation, which ran the plant, asked the commission to allow the operation of the power plant for another 10 years. The commission said in February 2015 that the power plant can remain in operation until 2022 in view of the result of its safety assessment. Then, the power plant was put back into operation in June 2015.
The Seoul Administrative Court, however, mentioned that the decision of the commission was not based on appropriate deliberation and voting. “Comparison charts regarding a change in operation that are required by the Nuclear Safety Act were not submitted and the approval was arbitrarily determined by the head of a section of the commission instead of commission members in charge of the matter,” the court explained, adding, “Still, these do not constitute a clear and objective violation of law and the decision of the commission is to be cancelled instead of becoming invalid.”
“We are going to lodge an appeal because the approval of the change in operation is not problematic at all,” said the commission. The plaintiffs including the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements remarked that they would ask the court to ban the execution of the approval on February 8 or later. The power plant cannot be run once the court accepts the request.