"Delayed Due to Partisan Interests in the National Assembly"
Pointed Out by the Private Environmental Monitoring Committee
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-sun] On the 22nd, Joo Nak-young, mayor of Gyeongju City, presided over the 69th regular meeting of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant and Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility Civil Environmental Monitoring Committee and strongly urged the early enactment of the "Special Act on the Management of High-Level Radioactive Waste," which is currently pending in the National Assembly.
Joo Nak-young, the mayor of Gyeongju City, is urging the enactment of a special law for high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities.
Earlier, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the 2nd Basic Plan for High-Level Radioactive Waste Management in December 2021, and currently, a subcommittee of the National Assembly is reviewing three special bills related to high-level radioactive waste.
On this day, Mayor Joo stated, "Delaying the construction of a high-level radioactive waste disposal facility, an essential facility for nuclear power plant operation, is an act of committing a crime against history by jeopardizing the lives and safety of the people," strongly criticizing the political circles for postponing the review of the bill due to partisan interests.
Mayor Joo also commented on the recent statement issued by the Gyeongju City Nuclear Power Plant Citizens' Countermeasure Committee, saying, "While the claims of the Countermeasure Committee are understandable, they should not provide a pretext to delay the bill review with unrealistic demands."
The Gyeongju City Nuclear Power Plant Citizens' Countermeasure Committee held a press conference on the 20th and issued a statement demanding the unconditional deletion of Article 18 of the Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility Special Act, which they claim blatantly ignores the operation of storage facilities within the site.
In this regard, Mayor Joo pointed out, "This ignores the reality that temporary storage facilities within the site must be operated until a permanent disposal facility is established, and the demand to unconditionally fulfill the 2016 removal promise lacks realism and validity."
Mayor Joo continued, "The government should humbly apologize for failing to fulfill the promise to remove Gyeongju's high-level waste by 2016, and since the damage to local residents due to the long-term operation of temporary storage facilities is evident, reasonable compensation measures must be prepared to secure residents' acceptance of continued nuclear power plant operation."
Mayor Joo reiterated, "Even if not everyone is satisfied, establishing a legally binding roadmap to promptly construct interim and permanent disposal facilities is the only way to prevent the permanentization of the currently operating temporary storage facilities. Therefore, I strongly urge the early enactment of the High-Level Radioactive Waste Special Act."
A Gyeongju city official explained, "Since there is no high-level nuclear waste disposal facility in Korea, the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant in Gyeongju temporarily stores waste on-site, but due to insufficient storage facilities, expansion work was carried out in March last year. Recently, I understand that the Kori Nuclear Power Plant is also planning to establish a temporary storage facility for high-level waste on-site. It is urgent to enact the special law as soon as possible and establish a permanent disposal facility."
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