Special committee on two Shin Kori reactors launched
Former justice Kim Ji-hyung named chairman
An ad-hoc committee to gather public opinion on the fate of the No. 5 and 6 nuclear reactors at the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant in South Gyeongsang Province started work Monday.
The government announced the nine members of the committee, whom it evaluated as neutral and socially respected.
The committee will select a group of ordinary “citizen jurors” to decide whether to permanently stop the construction of the reactors after three months of deliberations.
Kim Ji-hyung, managing partner of the law firm Jipyong, will head the committee.
“We will stick to justice in the procedure,” Kim said after the committee’s first official meeting Monday.
Kim served as a Supreme Court justice between 2005 and 2011. He also served as chief of the reconciliatory committee regarding leukemia cases involving Samsung Electronics semiconductor workers.
The other eight committee members come from the humanities and sociology, science and technology, survey and statistics, and conflict management sectors.
Kim Jung-in, a public administration professor at the University of Suwon, and Ryu Bang-ran, Korea Educational Development Institute vice president, represent the humanities and sociology.
Kyunghee University chemical engineering professor Yu Tae-kyung and Korea Institute for Advanced Studies professor Lee Sung-jay, an expert in high energy physics, represent science and technology.
The committee also includes Kim Young-won, a statistics professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, and University of Seoul urban sociology professor Lee Yun-suk.
For conflict management, the committee has Kangwon University sociology professor Kim Wo n- d o n g and Lee Hee-jin a director at the Korea Alternative Dispute Resolution Center, a private organization specializing in conflict resolution.
The government excluded people related to the nuclear and energy sectors, while maintaining a balance between men and women, and including young people who represent the future generation.
Among the nine experts, three are females while three are in their 30s.
The group of citizen jurors they select will determine the fate of the two reactors — whether to permanently suspend the construction project or to resume it. The determination will be made in mid October.
At a meeting with the media, Energy Minister Paik Un-gyu said the government will gradually phase out nuclear power. The engineering professor is one of the scholars who support renewable and clean energy sources.
“Instead of just canceling the construction of the two nuclear reactors, the administration is going through the democratic process of reaching a consensus among the public. The energy ministry does not have any prediction. We will just support the committee to be fair and transparent in its decision,” he said.
The opposition parties are taking issue with the legitimacy of the special committee.
Rep. Kim Kyung-jin of the People’s Party said, “The committee’s legal status is not clear. There is the possibility of a breach of the law in the suspension of construction of the 5th and 6th Shin Kori reactors.”
He said the Moon government’s push to suspend construction had no legal grounds.
“Under the current laws, the suspension of nuclear power plant construction is only possible through Article 17 of the Nuclear Safety Law. The legitimacy of the Moon government’s step to suspend construction is not justifiable as it’s an administrative action that lacks legal grounds,” Kim said.
Rep. Lee Chae-ik of the Liberty Korea Party also said he will launch a campaign to publicize the problems with the committee.
“We oppose the Moon government’s reckless nuclear policy which excludes experts and which has been pushed without consultation with the National Assembly,” Lee said.
During the election campaign, President Moon Jae-in had pledged to make Korea a nuclear free country, scrapping all plans to build new nuclear reactors.
President Moon ordered the setting up of a committee of private-sector experts to determine whether the project should continue or not.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the state-run nuclear power plant operator, suspended construction following the order, despite fierce opposition from subcontractors as well as its union and residents near the construction site.