Korea nuclear power panel names outside reviewers to police its own public debate

The committee running South Korea's public consultation on nuclear power has decided to bring in outside experts to monitor whether the process is fair and neutral, and to recommend how it can be improved.

The Committee for Public Deliberation on Nuclear Power, chaired by Eun Jae-ho, approved the measure at its fourth meeting at the Power Infrastructure Center in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul. The committee is preparing the public debate that will feed into the country's next Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand.

The evaluation panel will observe and check how the citizens' participation group is chosen and how the deliberative discussions are run, and will submit a report at the end of the consultation setting out its findings and proposals for improving the procedure.

The committee also passed operating rules for a separate experts' committee, which will advise on the consultation's agenda and the specific issues at stake, hold public debates open to all citizens, and prepare the briefing materials and discussion sessions for the citizens' group. Final decisions stay with the main committee, which will sign off on the agenda, the briefing document and the questionnaire used in the deliberations.

The committee also discussed a draft of the briefing materials that will be given to participants. Those materials will set out the main facts on the issue alongside the arguments and supporting evidence of both sides — the environmental camp and the nuclear industry — with sources cited for each piece of evidence. Where the two sides agree, their agreed position will be presented as such; where they do not, their positions will be set out side by side in the same length and structure, so that participants can compare them on an even footing.