'Pandora's Box' Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Closure Audit Results Opening Soon

Audit Report on the Feasibility of Early Closure of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Unit 1
President Moon 4 Years Ago: "We Must Remove the Pandora's Box Itself"

On June 2nd, environmental activists from the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements held a performance at Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, Seoul, urging opposition to the additional construction of temporary storage facilities for nuclear waste at the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) began its fourth day of deliberations on the audit report regarding the early shutdown decision of Wolseong Unit 1 on the 13th, without reaching a conclusion. The BAI had previously held three sessions on the 7th, 8th, and 12th but failed to finalize the matter. Attention is focused on whether the "Pandora's box," which has been dragged on for over a year, will finally be opened.

On the morning of the same day, the BAI resumed the fourth audit committee meeting to continue discussions on the Wolseong Unit 1 audit report. The audit results are finalized through a resolution by the audit committee. Given the massive volume of the Wolseong Unit 1 audit report, the deliberation is expected to take time. A National Assembly inspection by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee targeting the BAI is scheduled for the 15th, raising the possibility that the audit results may be released before then. This comes one year and one month after the National Assembly requested the audit in September last year, and eight months after the deadline that ended in February. The audit report is typically disclosed to the National Assembly and others within a few days after the resolution.

Previously, tensions flared between BAI Chairman Choi Jae-hyung and the ruling party as speculation grew that the BAI had reached a tentative conclusion that the economic feasibility of Wolseong Unit 1 was underestimated. Allegations of external pressure on the audit results, clashes between Chairman Choi and pro-government audit committee members, and controversies over the BAI’s coercive investigations of current and former officials from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy were also raised.

Therefore, regardless of the outcome, a political storm is anticipated. If the conclusion supports the government's policy that the nuclear plant shutdown was justified, the opposition is expected to question the BAI’s independence and spread allegations of external pressure. Conversely, if the conclusion opposes the shutdown, the Moon Jae-in administration’s nuclear phase-out policy will inevitably suffer a blow.

The BAI is also responding sensitively to perceptions that this audit is a "nuclear phase-out audit." The BAI stated on the day, "We are only examining the validity of the early shutdown decision of Wolseong Unit 1 according to the National Assembly’s audit request," adding, "The so-called government 'nuclear phase-out policy' or 'energy transition policy' is not the subject of this audit." Regarding criticism over the unusually prolonged deliberations, the BAI denied internal conflicts within the audit committee, explaining that the duration depends on the scale, complexity, and difficulty of the audit matters.

Former President Moon Jae-in (then leader of the Democratic Party of Korea) is sitting in a seat with director Park Jung-woo on the afternoon of December 18, 2016, at a movie theater in Busanjin-gu, Busan, waiting for the screening of the nuclear disaster film "Pandora."

Meanwhile, in December 2016, when Moon Jae-in was the former leader of the Democratic Party, he watched the nuclear disaster film "Pandora" and emphasized, "We should not just avoid opening Pandora’s (nuclear) box, but remove the Pandora’s box itself," stressing, "We must stop additional nuclear plant construction and move toward a denuclearized and nuclear phase-out nation."

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