[Yonhap Photo]
In his first cabinet meeting, South Korean President Moon Jae-in approved the temporary shutdown of two nuclear reactors under construction pending public hearings and debate for three months.
The decision, announced by Hong Nam-ki, who heads the Office for Government Policy Coordination, takes effect on Tuesday, and construction of the two reactors, slated for completion in 2022, in South Korea's largest Gori nuclear complex near the southeastern port city of Busan came to a halt.
Citing a negative impact on regional economic development, Hong said a German-style jury involving about ten neutral figures would be formed to build a public consensus for about three months through a series of public hearings and TV debate.
"We have reached a conclusion that the best way is to build and respect a social consensus because this issue is related to the regional economy," he said.
At the end of May, 28.8 percent of construction has been completed at the cost of about 1.6 trillion won (1.4 billion US dollars), Hong said, adding it would require a total of 2.6 trillion won to suspend construction indefinitely.
Tuesday's cabinet decision followed the permanent shutdown of South Korea's oldest 580-megawatt reactor in the Gori complex on June 18. The Gori-1 reactor stopped its 40-year operation under Moon's "nuclear-exit" campaign aimed at replacing old nuclear and coal-powered thermal power plants with clean and renewable energy sources.
Undeterred by strong opposition from industrial and academic communities, Moon has vowed to close the second reactor at an early date and reduce South Korea's heavy dependence on nuclear energy which accounts for about 30 percent of its power supply.
Old reactors have been the source of controversy with activists raising concerns about a possible disaster following the 2011 Fukushima crisis. Energy-related scholars, the business community and others have opposed a radical change, citing the slow pace of renewable energy development.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
