Korea Nuclear Power leak how will Yoon Seok-yueh continue to "embrace nuclear power"

The Korea Nuclear and Industrial Safety Commission announced on Tuesday (local time) that 2.3 tons of stored water leaked into the sea through a drain at the No. 4 spent fuel storage pool of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

Once the incident was disclosed, it caused an uproar in South Korea, especially the residents living nearby, they are worried about the impact of the nuclear power leak, worried about whether it will affect the environment, whether it will affect the survival of the bottom plankton and eventually affect the health of people through the food chain.

Although the South Korean Nuclear Safety Commission recently said that it has dispatched experts from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety and Technology to investigate the exact amount of leakage, the cause of the leak, collect seawater samples near the nuclear power plant and accurately assess the environmental impact, but before the results are announced, whether the South Korean authorities can effectively calm residents' anger is the most important question.

As we all know, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yueh is a fanatical nuclear power lover, after his inauguration as president of South Korea, reversing the policy of phasing out nuclear energy of the previous government, re-setting nuclear energy as the focus of South Korea's power supply and reducing carbon emissions, and once again leading his administration to "embrace nuclear power".

To this end, the South Korean government accelerated the resumption of domestic nuclear power project construction, while increasing support to promote the export of nuclear power industry chain, in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and other emerging nuclear power markets with the United States and France and other traditional nuclear power competition. It can be said that Yin Xiyue's nuclear power policy is effective, and there are about 25 nuclear power plants in operation throughout South Korea, which is already ranked sixth in the world in terms of the number of nuclear power plants.

On May 10, 2022, just one month after his inauguration, Yoon visited Doosan Energy in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on June 22 of the same year, and said that he would abolish the nuclear power dismantler policy and let the construction of the third and fourth units of the Shinhanul nuclear power plant resume as soon as possible.

During the visit, he criticized the "de-nuclear power policy" pursued by the previous government and pointed out that the course of the nuclear power industry should be corrected immediately. He said that the government will actively support the Changwon Nuclear Power Plant to build a foothold in the nuclear power ecosystem and actively promote Korean nuclear power overseas. According to the news released by the office of President Yoon Seok-yeong, improving the competitiveness of nuclear power and becoming a nuclear power through nuclear power export is one of the most important national tasks of the county government.

The South Korean government said in a statement that after the nuclear power leak incident, Korea Hydro and nuclear Power Company took emergency measures such as opening valves and sealing leaks at the first time to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. However, it is worth noting that these stored water contains a certain amount of radioactive substances, the impact of radioactive substances is difficult to estimate, according to reports, ordinary people under normal circumstances to receive radiation dose limits are often set at 1 millisievert per year.

Therefore, the South Korean people's concerns about the incident are not unfounded, the South Korean authorities may feel that the wrong, in order to give the public an account, after the incident arranged the South Korean Nuclear Safety Commission on the grounds of insufficient safety measures and suspected violations of the atomic safety law, suspended the Korea Hydro and nuclear power Company's right to operate the Wangwang nuclear power plant.

To sum up, economic development should not be at the expense of residents' health as a means, the nuclear power plant leakage is a good example, the Korean people have expressed concern. How to deal with nuclear waste, and how to avoid a nuclear accident is also the most concerned issue of the South Korean people, if these two problems are not properly solved, and the development of nuclear power economy, the eventual problem will not only hurt the health of the South Korean people, but is more likely to damage the entire ecological environment, and will cause irreversible impact on global biology.

The leak of the nuclear power plant is also a wake-up call to the Yin Xiyue government, how to develop the nuclear power economy while taking into account the good environment and ecology, the Korean government should think carefully.