Local Government Administrative Council of Nuclear Power Plant Sites Submits Joint Proposal on the 'Special Act on High-Level Radioactive Waste Management'

Amendment Bill to Establish Legal Basis for Continued Operation of Nuclear Power Plants and Special Support Fund

Gijang County Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] The ‘Administrative Council of Local Governments Hosting Nuclear Power Plants’ (hereinafter ‘Administrative Council’), consisting of Gijang-gun, Gyeongju-si, Yeonggwang-gun, Ulju-gun, and Uljin-gun, has taken joint action on major nuclear power plant-related issues such as high-level radioactive waste management and continued operation.

Recently, three special bills on high-level radioactive waste management under discussion in the National Assembly’s standing committee (Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee) include provisions for installing spent nuclear fuel storage facilities (hereinafter ‘temporary storage facilities’) within nuclear power plant sites.

The Administrative Council emphasized that allowing additional temporary storage facilities without the consent of local residents is unfair and unreasonable, and on the 6th submitted a joint petition regarding the special bills to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the National Assembly.

In the joint petition, the Administrative Council demanded that “the highest priority stakeholders in spent nuclear fuel management policy are the residents of nuclear power plant areas, and that participation of local representatives from basic local governments hosting nuclear power plants in the High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Committee be guaranteed,” and that “basic local governments hosting nuclear power plants be excluded from the candidate sites for the basic investigation of site suitability for high-level radioactive waste management facilities.”

Furthermore, the petition included demands such as “specifying concrete schedules for site selection, construction, and operation of high-level radioactive waste management facilities in the special law to guarantee that temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel within nuclear power plants will not be permanent, and that unavoidable temporary storage within nuclear power plant sites be installed only after consent procedures with local residents of the nuclear power plant hosting areas.”

The Administrative Council also jointly proposed to the government an amendment to the ‘Act on Support for Areas Surrounding Power Plants’ to establish grounds for special subsidies for the continued operation of nuclear power plants.

Article 10 (Types of Support Projects, etc.) of the ‘Act on Support for Areas Surrounding Power Plants’ includes support for new nuclear power plant construction but lacks grounds for special subsidies for continued operation. Therefore, the council requested that the law be amended to provide grounds for special subsidies for continued operation as well.

Jung Jong-bok, mayor of Gijang-gun and chairperson of the Administrative Council, said, “The five local governments hosting nuclear power plants will continue to communicate and cooperate on major nuclear power plant-related issues for regional development and the safety of local residents.”

The Administrative Council was established in 2004 with participation from five basic local governments?Gyeongju-si, Gijang-gun, Yeonggwang-gun, Ulju-gun, and Uljin-gun?that host nuclear power plants to jointly respond to major issues related to nuclear power plant policies.

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