Korea nuclear power panel adds nine experts ahead of December citizen debate

South Korea's public deliberation committee on the country's nuclear power plans said Thursday it had finalized a nine-member expert panel, filling the environment seats itself after environmental groups declined to take part.

The committee, chaired by Eun Jae-ho, approved the composition at its third meeting on Oct. 21 in Seoul, the environment ministry said. Because environmental organizations did not respond to requests for nominations, the committee appointed the three environment specialists on its own authority, alongside three nuclear experts and three neutral members.

The panel is due to hold its first meeting on Oct. 27 to review the draft deliberative questionnaire and briefing materials the committee has prepared for a citizens' panel, and to offer recommendations before the committee adopts them.

The topics put to the citizens' panel are the role nuclear power should play, the considerations involved in carrying out that role, and the range for nuclear power's share of total generation. The committee said all of its discussions proceed on the premise of the national greenhouse gas reduction target and the first basic plan for renewable energy. Questions carry no direction: rather than asking whether nuclear power should be expanded or reduced, they ask to what level each issue should be met, and the format avoids anything that reads as a yes-or-no vote, asking instead for a lower and upper bound on the generation share of each power source.

The citizens' panel will deliberate over three days and two nights, from Dec. 11 to 13.

Eun said the decision by environmental groups to stay out of the process was regrettable. "The balance of public deliberation is upheld by the information delivered to citizens and by the fairness of the debate," he said.

"With experts who have long worked in the environment and nuclear fields taking part, the committee will take responsibility for producing briefing materials and discussions that lean to neither side," he said, adding that "the door to the deliberation will remain open until the end."

Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan said his ministry would actively support the committee's independent work and asked that it manage the process fairly so that citizens can deliberate on the basis of sufficient information about the various factors energy supply must weigh, including carbon neutrality, economic viability and safety.