"Government to Spend 3 Trillion Won Over 6 Years on Fukushima Response" [2023 National Audit]

"Claim for Subrogation Must Be Filed in Japan"

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration's plan to allocate approximately 3 trillion won in budget over six years starting this year to respond to the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima has raised concerns that it could lead to a national financial burden.

According to the budget proposal data for responding to the Fukushima contaminated water discharge, received on the 26th by Jeong Pil-mo, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, from various ministries, more than 3 trillion won will be invested in 20 projects from this year through 2028.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is expected to spend 3.1128 trillion won, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission 21.2 billion won, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety 9.6 billion won respectively. The project with the largest budget over six years is the stockpiling project (870 billion won), followed by the fisheries finance fund project (720 billion won) and the fisheries product purchase support project (570 billion won).

All these projects are aimed at preparing for the impact on the fisheries industry and damage to fishermen caused by the discharge of contaminated water.

Assemblyman Jeong pointed out that it is unknown how many more decades such budgets will need to be invested in the future. Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to complete the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant by 2051, but many experts are concerned that it is likely to take longer than that.

Jeong said, "The Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s passive stance on the Fukushima contaminated water discharge is ultimately leading to a national financial burden," and added, "knowing that neighboring countries will suffer damage, the Japanese government irresponsibly proceeded with the discharge, so we must actively estimate the direct and indirect damage and claim compensation rights."

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