225 Professors Opposing Nuclear Phase-Out: "Ruling Party's Unreasonable Criticism of Audit Chief's Family"

Agyohyeop Urges Fair Economic Audit of Wolseong Unit 1

Yang Yi-won-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, questioning at the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee plenary session on the morning of the 20th of last month. (Image source=Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] On the 1st, 225 professors belonging to the "Professors' Council for Rational Energy Policy (Egyopyeop)," who oppose the government's nuclear phase-out policy, criticized, "The statements by ruling party lawmakers that Audit Chief Choi Jae-hyung is critical of the nuclear phase-out policy due to the influence of his in-laws working as editorial writers for conservative media and researchers at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute are thoughtless claims."

The day before, Yang Eui-won-young, a member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, raised an issue, saying, "Chief Choi's in-laws are currently employed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and are editorial writers for media outlets that actively criticize the government's nuclear phase-out policy."

Egyopyeop stated, "We vehemently condemn such blind and anti-intellectual remarks by ruling party lawmakers about the Audit Chief," and criticized, "The ruling party lawmakers' claims that Chief Choi is critical of the government's nuclear phase-out policy due to the influence of his in-laws are thoughtless assertions that cast doubt on the lawmakers' discernment."

Lawmaker Yang questioned Chief Choi, "Did you know that your father described the current government as a left-wing regime and said in an interview that the Moon Jae-in administration consists of bad people?" Chief Choi rebutted, "(The controversy over the Audit Office's neutrality) is not true," and added, "I'm sorry, but my family members are not involved in handling Audit Office affairs."

Egyopyeop argued, citing the Audit Office's audit decision system, that it would be difficult for Chief Choi to unilaterally draw a specific conclusion. They pointed out that the audit of Wolseong Unit 1 by the Audit Office is limited to whether there was manipulation in the economic feasibility evaluation, so the Audit Chief's political opinions cannot influence the audit.

Egyopyeop said, "The Audit Chief's personal opinion on the nuclear phase-out policy cannot have an absolute impact on the final audit result, which is decided by consensus among seven commissioners," and added, "The Audit Chief is only one member of the seven-member Audit Committee, each of whom has voting rights."

Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2. (Photo by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power)

Egyopyeop pointed out that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) set the electricity sales price per kWh excessively low in the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolseong Unit 1. They claimed that last year it was 52 won, this year 51 won, and next year and 2022 it is expected to be 49 won, which is lower than the 54 won noted in the 2016 report by the National Assembly Budget Office. This implies that not only Wolseong Unit 1 but all electricity produced by KHNP would be sold below cost, which is a clear contradiction.

Egyopyeop urged, "The Audit Office should prepare an audit report that clearly indicates traces of obvious manipulation such as underestimation of sales price and utilization rate," and added, "All audit commissioners should make decisions they would not be ashamed to reveal under their real names in history."

In September last year, the National Assembly requested the Audit Office to audit Wolseong Unit 1. According to Article 127-2 of the National Assembly Act, the Audit Office must report the results within three months from the date of receiving the audit request from the National Assembly. If the audit cannot be completed for special reasons, it can be extended for two months after an interim report.

The Audit Office extended the audit period once in December last year. As of September 1, more than half a year past the 'legal deadline' at the end of February, the economic feasibility audit of Wolseong Unit 1 is still ongoing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.