Audit Results of Wolsong Unit 1 Closure: 'Pandora's Box' Opens Tomorrow (Comprehensive)

Board of Audit and Inspection Finalizes Decision on Early Closure Feasibility Audit
Scheduled for Public Release Around 2 PM on the 20th... Aftermath Expected

President Moon Jae-in is presiding over the senior secretaries and aides meeting at the Blue House on the 19th.

The Board of Audit and Inspection's audit on the validity of the early shutdown decision of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 has been concluded after more than a year of controversy. The Board finalized the audit results on the 'Validity of the Early Shutdown Decision of Wolseong Unit 1' on the afternoon of the 19th and plans to disclose the results around 2 p.m. on the 20th.

This comes 385 days after the National Assembly requested the audit on September 30 last year, and 233 days after the statutory audit deadline at the end of February was passed.

On the day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Board held its sixth audit committee meeting attended by Chairman Choi Jae-hyung and five audit commissioners to review and approve the audit report containing the results.

Previously, the Board had attempted to finalize the audit results at the audit committee meeting on April 9, before the general election, but decided to conduct supplementary audits during additional meetings on April 10 and 13, and has been conducting further investigations until recently.

Following the approval of the report, the Board plans to print the report with real names replaced by anonymized versions, notify the subjects of the audit results, and then deliver the final report to the National Assembly.

The disclosure of the audit results is expected to cause a political storm.

Earlier, there was speculation that the Board had reached a provisional conclusion that the economic feasibility of Wolseong Unit 1 was underestimated, which sparked conflict between Chairman Choi and the ruling party. Allegations of external pressure on the audit, clashes between Chairman Choi and pro-government audit commissioners, and controversies over coercive investigations of current and former officials from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy were also raised.

If the conclusion finds that the government's judgment that the 'economic feasibility is low'?one of the reasons for early shutdown?was incorrect, it would deal a blow to the administration that has been pursuing a nuclear phase-out policy.

Conversely, if the decision finds no problem with the early shutdown, opposition parties are expected to strongly criticize it as a result of 'political pressure' from the administration.

Chairman Choi stated at the National Assembly audit on the 15th that "this audit faced significant resistance," adding, "After the National Assembly requested the audit, officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy deleted all related materials, which took time to recover, and the process of taking statements was also very difficult."

Choi Jae-hyung, Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, is listening to questions at the Board of Audit and Inspection's national audit held at the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 15th.

However, current political circles are speculating that the Board of Audit and Inspection will not outright deny the validity of the early shutdown.

Moreover, regardless of the audit results, the industry generally agrees that restarting Wolseong Unit 1 is realistically difficult.

To restart Wolseong Unit 1, a legal basis must first be established, but given the ruling party's overwhelming majority in the National Assembly, the likelihood of amending related laws is low.

Even if legal provisions are established, a new safety review from the beginning would be required, which would take considerable time. Considering that Wolseong Unit 1's lifespan is until November 2022, there are inevitable criticisms about the lack of effectiveness.

Meanwhile, in December 2016, when Moon Jae-in was the leader of the Democratic Party, after watching the nuclear disaster film 'Pandora,' he emphasized, "We should not just avoid opening Pandora's box (nuclear power), but remove the box itself," and stressed, "We must stop additional nuclear power plant construction and move toward a nuclear phase-out and denuclearization country."

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