'National Assembly Audit Battle' Wolsong Unit 1 Audit Announcement Imminent

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

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] As the validity of the early shutdown of Wolseong Unit 1 has once again become a topic of debate at the National Assembly audit, the announcement of the Board of Audit and Inspection's (BAI) audit is imminent.

According to political circles on the 9th, the BAI's Audit Committee held meetings over two days on the 7th and 8th but failed to reach a final conclusion, postponing the decision to the 12th.

However, since the audit committee also failed to reach a conclusion after three days of meetings in April, it is highly likely that some form of conclusion will be made this time.

If the BAI concludes that the nuclear power plant was economically unfeasible, it could undermine the credibility of the Moon Jae-in administration's nuclear phase-out policy and the government itself.

Conversely, if the conclusion is that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's shutdown of the plant was justified, the neutrality and independence of the BAI could be questioned.

Earlier, on the 7th, during the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee's audit of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the opposition party raised the issue of the early shutdown of Wolseong Unit 1.

The Liberty Korea Party, the predecessor of the People Power Party, argued that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's decision in June 2018 to shut down Wolseong Unit 1 was due to the Moon Jae-in administration's nuclear phase-out policy.

They claimed that the early shutdown of Wolseong Unit 1 involved breach of trust, including issues with electricity sales prices, which led to the start of the audit.

Even if the Audit Committee does not reach a final conclusion on the 12th, the BAI has decided to minimize the time between the audit results and reporting to the National Assembly.

The audit results conducted at the request of the National Assembly will be disclosed to the media immediately upon submission to the Assembly.

This will mark the announcement of the results one year after the BAI began the audit on October 1 of last year.

This is eight months later than the statutory audit deadline of February this year.

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