Group of South Korean Scholars Urges President to Halt Anti-NPP Policy

A group of 410 South Korean scientists and professors on Wednesday called on the country's President Moon Jae-in to halt his policy directed against nuclear power plants (NPP), both those currently operating in South Korea and the ones under construction.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In June, Moon said that the government would either scrap construction of the new NPPs in the country and would abstain from extension of operations of the old ones. The president added that a series of the NPP-related incidents, including the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan put the safety of the nuclear reactors into question.

"[The country's authorities] should immediately halt the push to extinguish the nuclear energy industry that provides cheap electricity to the general public… It is such a unilateral move to just scrap the nuclear policy based on the president's announcement," the group said in a press release, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

The group called on the country's leader to consider not only the statements made by the government officials on the issue of nuclear energy, but also the estimations of the experts in the sphere.

According to the scientists, the country's NPP could withstand any potential tremor at the Korean Peninsula and the accident similar to the one in Japan is highly unlikely.

Concerns about the safety of NPPs were raised around the world after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami wave crippled the Fukushima NPP, causing a meltdown and far-reaching contamination.