○ Definition of ‘decommissioning’ of nuclear power generating facilities
- ‘Decommission’ that is used internationally for nuclear power generating facilities is rendered as ‘disassemble’ under the Korean positive law. It is necessary to further clarify the meaning for legal regulation by distinguishing the ‘decommission’
which means the inclusive administrative and procedural termination of legal management from the ‘disassemble’ which means the specific operational acts. It is necessary to define it more positively into ‘restoration into the original state of land’ rather than stopping at ‘exclusion from the application of law’.
○ Independence of agencies
- Korean Nuclear Safety Commission organized with US NRC as its model is organized to secure a certain degree of independence in the aspect of its organizational composition. However, further legislation is required to ensure its real independence while excluding external influence on its decision making, including provisions for preventing conflict of interest between the entire organization and the parties being regulated and the top-priority consideration of the value of safety.
○ Cooperation among agencies
- The current statutes rarely define any specific means of cooperation with other departments or agencies in nuclear energy-related services. In the case where a service is performed by various different departments, including the prevention of disasters, pollution of the environment, health hazards, transportation of relevant materials, and treatment of wastes, the services by the related agencies should be clearly distinguished and the cooperation means should be provided specifically in order to remove any blind spot in or conflict with actual regulations by other departments.
○ Promotion and internalization of safety culture
- With regards to the promotion of safety culture that is emphasized by IAEA, it is necessary to legalize the performing means presented by IAEA into specific behavioral norms in addition to the distribution or diffusion at the level of principles in order to support the practical promotion of the safety culture, including ensuring of the workers participation in rules development, encouragement of communication, questions, and learning attitude, and suppression of conceit concerning safety.
○ Disclosure of information
- The current Nuclear Safety Act provides the safety assessment, decommissioning plans, the objects subject to and its procedure for disclosure of incidents, and website and other disclosure means. However, it is necessary to institutionalize the means to enhance the receptivity of information so as to help understand the interest and concerns of the general public. The legal system should be improved to make the rights to know more specific and realistic, including the deployment of on-going information delivery platforms through a permanent consultative body, big data concerning the related information, two-way request and provision of information, and guaranty of claims for health, environmental survey, and assessment.
○ Stakeholders’ participation
- The current Nuclear Safety Act provides the participation by stakeholders and the operation of Nuclear Safety Council, including the public inspection of Written Assessment of Radiation Impact on Environment, a collection of opinions, requirements, and expense sharing for holding public hearings. However, the regulatory agencies should provide a means for providing information reflecting the user interface and a more substantial participation should support policies and decision making through such two-way communication based on such enhanced understanding.
○ Environmental impact assessment
- The current Nuclear Safety Act provides that a draft decommissioning plan or draft environmental impact assessment should be prepared for the public inspection of the plan when the decommissioning permit is requested and the assessed items are limited mainly to the contents related to radioactivity. However, the assessment should include a general assessment of the environmental impact and assessment of the impact on health that are performed from the perspective of environment and health as the current assessment items neglect the impact on the surrounding environment and society and economy, including atmosphere, water, soil, living, and eco-system.
○ Safe management of wastes
- The current Nuclear Safety Act provides the classification and definition of only two types of radioactive wastes - high and low or medium level. It is necessary to provide a more detailed classification and clearer definition based on the risk level, re-usability, and possibility of internal disposal. It is necessary to provide the archival and disclosure of records concerning their management and disposal, systems for risk assessment, and easy systems for tracking and verification.
○ Sharing of expenses
- The current systems for sharing expenses related to the nuclear power generation include the regional resource facility tax under the Local Tax Act, dues for sharing expenses for nuclear safety management under the Nuclear Safety Act, dues for sharing expenses for management of spent nuclear fuel, management of radioactive wastes, fees for input of radioactive wastes, and obligations for accumulating funds appropriated for decommissioning of nuclear power plants. However, a systematic support is required to make the cost estimation elements more realistic and specific and more transparent, including the sharing and execution of expenses for the development of decommissioning technologies and early decommissioning, social and economic expenses, sharing of expenses of safety and incident risk, and management expenses after the decommissioning is completed.
○ Plans for legislation
- As to the post-treatment of nuclear power plants in a safe and environment-caring manner, this study presents directions for improvement of the current legislation and draft bills in preparation for full-scale decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the future.
- The structure of the proposed draft bills consists of the following referring to the contents of the IAEA’s model regulation on decommissioning of facilities - General Rules (Chapter 1), Protection of Man and Environment (Chapter 2), Management of Decommissioning (Chapter 3), Strategies for Decommissioning (Chapter 4), Financing of Decommissioning (Chapter 5), Decommissioning Plan (Chapter 6), Decommissioning Acts (Work) (Chapter 7), Completion of Decommissioning Acts and Termination of Decommissioning Permit (Chapter 8).
Draft bills for improving legislation are presented for items whose regulations should be reinforced by examining whether the regulations presented under the Model Regulations have been duly reflected on the current statutes in K.