Seoul Court Orders Gov’t to Close Nuclear Reactor Amid Safety Concerns via Sputnik

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by a group of local residents to annul the NSSC’s approval of a 10-year extension of the operation of the Wolseong-1 reactor in Gyeongju, which was supposed to be shut down in 2012, the Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.

Iranian Senior Vice-President on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, Ayatollah Gholam Ali Safaei Bushehri, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in Bushehr province, center bottom, breaks ground in a ceremony to begin building Iran's second nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr, Iran
© AP PHOTO/ IRANIAN SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

The reactor was shut down in 2012 after reaching the end of its 30-year commercial operation period. However, the commission issued a new operation license for another 10 years and restarted the reactor in June 2015 after a total of 946 days offline. In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the commission’s decision raised safety concerns and resulted in a collective suit filed by 2,167 nearby residents. However, the court recognized only the claims of those living within an 80-kilometer radius of the reactor. The court’s verdict was based on the NSSC’s failure to follow the legal procedures.

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At the moment, South Korea has 23 nuclear reactors in operation from which it receives about 30 percent of its electricity supply.

 

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