On the surface it looks like the 19 year-old issue of where to construct a radioactive waste facility is about to be smoothly resolved. There are competing campaigns in Gunsan, Gyeongju, Pohang, and Yeongdeok to get a higher ratio of "yes" votes in local referendums. Civil servants have been mobilized to persuade residents to approve having the site build in their locales, and residents who oppose the idea are going to be sent on tours of industrial facilities and study trips overseas. There were conflicts you might as well have called "rebellions" in places like Gureop Island, Anmyeon Island, and Buan, but this time around you don't hear anyone reporting symptoms of that happening again.
Unfortunately they still say that in those actual cities there are omens of conflict and even clashes, it's just that it's being ignored. The conflict is more inhuman than it has been in the past. Clashes used to be between citizens and riot police but now they're between fellow citizens. The massive campaign offensive using people and gifts is destroying each community's sense of community.
The national government is truly foolish if it thinks it can replace social agreement with money. Last year, after the failure of the effort to have the facility built in Buan, the government's own analysis was that it had failed because it "did not achieve agreement through a democratic and transparent process." It says that the site would store intermediate and low Level radioactive waste (ILLW) and so such a process is not needed because the material is less dangerous, but the proposed site in Buan was also supposed to be built to store ILLW. It says a site has to be chosen in a hurry because the temporary storage facility currently used will be overwhelmed by 2008, but given the danger involved the choice must be considered carefully. In Germany they seek agreement without setting a deadline. In the United States they allot ten years.
There is an increasing consensus about the need for nuclear power because of skyrocketing oil prices, the Kyoto Protocol that regulates the emission of greenhouse gasses, and instability of oil shipping routes, and energy aid for North Korea. But because of the inherent danger involved, policy regarding nuclear energy demands high levels of public confidence and agreement. The same goes for the problem of deciding on a site for the country's radioactive waste facility. Even if it only does so at this point, we call on the national government to do everything it can to go through a proper process of achieving social agreement in the localities concerned.
The Hankyoreh, 8 September 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Be Careful Selecting Site for Radioactive Waste |
