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작성일 : 11-09-20 22:07
Enerzine No 13. A Nuclear Dotage Remains
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   Enerzine No 13. A Nuclear Dotage Remains.pdf (124.0K) [8] DATE : 2011-09-20 22:07:42
1. Issues

A Nuclear Dotage Remains
- South Korea and India sign nuclear deal-


After the Fukushima disaster, considerable criticisms and concerns regarding nuclear power plants have been raised nuclear power plant across the globe. Despite this, South Korea still wants to revive the nuclear mafia.

Last July 25, South Korea became the ninth country to sign a nuclear deal with India. India now has 20 power-generating nuclear reactors in operation, six under construction and with plans to build about 40 more by 2032. Russia, France and the U.S. have been very active in India's nuclear power plant construction projects.  Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has been seeking cooperation with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to enter India's nuclear power plant construction market.

South Korea is geographically close to Japan. That is why almost everyone still feels threatened by the Fukushima accident. Ironically, as the Korean people express fear of radiation from Japan, South Korean President Lee visited the United Arab Emirates to give a guarantee on nuclear power plants 'made in Korea.' South Korea even proudly announced it is stepping up efforts to export nuclear power plants since Korean firms won a US$18.6 billion project in late 2009 to build four atomic power plants in the United Arab Emirates, after beating their U.S., Japanese and French rivals. The said contract actually raises many problems and concerns: See Enerzine No 7. (http://enerpol.net/epbrd/bbs/board.php?bo_table=bbs18&wr_id=12)

 President Lee even proudly said that 40% of the nation’s electricity industry depend on nuclear power and that we get 'high efficiency and technology through hard and steady efforts for the long term.“ ECPI seriously worry that South Korea will strive to turn itself into the leader of nuclear technology and world destruction.
 
Written by Bo-Young, Cho (Researcher: jobo8184@yahoo.co.kr)



Korea's Green Party
 
How the wind flows with the green party in Korea is not trivial. Even though there have been sporadic efforts to form a green party in the past, they failed because if lack the capability to enter the political society.

This time, however, several camps have actively come forward to form a green party for a few terms ahead of the general election in April 2012 and the presidential election in December 2012. Especially after the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima, Japan, which is Korea’s neighbor country, there has been significant motivation to form a green party focused on achieving independence from the nuclear and energy transition issues.
There are 21 power-generating nuclear reactors (including 1 life extension.) in operation that account for more than 30% of electric power production. About 4 million people live within 30km from nuclear power plants. Nevertheless, the conservative government headed by President Lee who proclaimed himself as the ‘Father of Green Growth,’ plans to source 59% of electric power production from nuclear plants with 40 additional plant constructions by 2030. Meanwhile, after a pro-democracy movement in 1987, the left parties had failed to enter the political system. The Democratic Labor Party finally revised Korea's political history by making inroads into the national assembly in 2002. But now the Democratic Labor Party and the New Progressive Party (the Democratic Labor Party had been separated in 2008, and now re-consolidation is under negotiation) have very low political power. Recently, the Green-left group in the New Progressive party opposed re-consolidation with the Democratic Labor Party and declared ‘the Green socialist party’. On the other side, several environmental groups (including NGOs), which have kept the characteristics of the ‘anti-politics’ line for the long term’ had carefully considered the ‘Green Party’. The other environmental NGOs and civil society groups announced to officially form a green party and focus on empowerment and policy. Thus, there are three main green party preparation groups, and the third one seems the most passionate.

Even though many environmental problems (mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, huge construction projects, climate change) have manifested, the civil society and the progressive groups could not find any political party or only a minor political party to represent. There is much attention on how the green party realizes the green value of ecology, peace, solidarity, and equality with people beyond the many institutional obstacles represented by nuclear power plant life extensions and additional construction projects.  We should also wait and see how the existing progressive party will deal with all these issues.

Written by Jung-Pil, Lee (Researcher: scumaru3440@hanmail.net)
 
2. Opinions
Essay on Experience in ‘No Nukes Asia Forum’ (NNAF)

ECPI attended ‘No Nukes Asia Forum, NNAF 2011’ for 6 days from August 2. NNAF is the place where every year the activists from about 10 countries including Japan and Korea have a meeting once a year and share the outcomes of each country’s antinuclear movement and discuss issues and movement tasks.

This year, it was held moving from Tokyo to Fukushima, Hiroshima, etc. The forum was scheduled to be held in combination with the world conference for antinuclear bombs in commemoration of 1945 Hiroshima A-bomb Day. The 66th anniversary of Antinuclear World Conference was held moving from Fukushima on July 31 to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and to Okinawa on August 11.

The participants met people of Fukushima prefecture where the nuclear power plant accident happened and had the international meeting in Tokyo and Hiroshima and went on antinuclear and denuclearization demonstrations. After Fukushima accident, the atmosphere in which nuclear power plant has been acquiesced in the name of ‘peaceful uses of atomic energy’ disappeared, and the inevitability and practicality of denuclearization were strongly expressed with one voice. NNAF for next year is to be held accommodating the schedule of nuclear security summit which will be held in March 2012 in Korea.

Hyu-woo, Kim (Researcher: nuovo90@hanmail.net)

Field Study: Bio-fuel Development Site in Isabela, Philippines

August 17, 2011, two members of the ECPI arrived in San Mariano in the province of Isabela, which takes about 10 hours by bus from Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. A bio-plant that is set to be completed in May next year is currently under construction, along with a sugar-cane plantation that will be used as the main resource for bio-fuel. This project is in progress and headed by the Japanese company called ITOCHU.

ECPI intensively researched on the situation of laborers working in the local farm (plantation) and unfair land contracts that existed when creating the sugar cane plantation. About the case about land tenure, there are many complaints from farmers who signed the contract. The agreement included unfair conditions such as a measly PHP10,000 (about USD230) land rental for six years and not allowing the workers to complain about their damaged houses and crops after they signed the contract.

ECPI interviewed representatives of FAGAMI, one of the farmer organizations in Isabela and three laborers from the plantation. The laborers said they only got a daily wage of PHP100 (about USD2.30), which is way lower than minimum wage. They also worried about the risk of future disasters e caused by spraying pesticides without minimum safety measures. They are not totally opposed to development but they maintain their position which is not to welcome development if benefits from such developments will not reach small farmers and the local people.

ECPI visited the Philippines for the first time, and now we expect to perform more studies and monitoring on climate injustice cases. ECPI plans to expand solidarity with NGOs in the Philippines

Ye-Ji, Yoo (Researcher: yjnyj@naver.com)

Thailand's Power Generation and Mess Struggle

Thailand is the one of the countries that has rapidly increased electricity consumption and forecasted that this trend will go on. The reason why usage of electricity in Thailand significantly increased is that electricity for the service industry will grow very much as a great country for tourism; and now, secondary industries that manufactures electricity also has also increased.
The Thai Government carries forward many power plant extension plans to cover the expected increase in electricity usage. In this process, the rights of the local Thai people has been abused, especially for the fact that several provinces have direct interest, such as Prachuap Khiri Khan
Energy injustice may be viewed in two ways. First, the local people living near the planned site for the power plant oppose the construction due to the heat coming from the power plant that could seriously threaten their traditional means of living such as farming and fishing. That is why local people struggle to oppose the construction of the power plant.
Ban Krut and Ban Bo Nok are symbolic areas that fought against the coal power plant. Even though local people finally stopped the construction through mass struggle such as street demonstrations in Bangkok, there were serious damages as well as one of the local leaders was killed.
Still, several other areas are intensively struggling to stop the construction of coal power plants such as in Tap Sakhae. It is a typical case of energy injustice that disregards responsibility and damage because these areas' environmental burden is very low as much as the amount of electricity usage is lower than just one big shopping center in Bangkok.
The other case in energy injustice involves an existing power plant that has threatened the lives of people. The Baan Bang Kaew area has experienced coastal erosions in four rivers which flow into the bay of Thailand due to the construction of imprudent hydroelectric dams. The local people built bamboo wall and plant mangroves on the shore by themselves as a last resort, but still it is a very risky situation. The Thai Government did not pay attention to this issue and area. They spent USD1,600 to help this area only after this coastal erosion had become a national issue.
Now, energy is a very important basic human right, but still, much of the supply of energy goes to the industry sector. People in rural areas take many damages with economical reasons although they show very low green house gas emission level. Injustice should first be addressed to solve problems in electricity. Especially, it needs to pay attention to how developing counties generate and process energy and not follow the fact that developed countries negatively affect their environments.

Jin-woo, Lee (Researcher: purevil@naver.com)


3. New Report

ECPI conducted researches in the first half of 2011 to establish ‘(tentatively named) Seoul City Climate School Strategy’ at the request of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

In this age of climate changes and energy crisis, schools should carry out not only educational responsibilities inherent to schools but also social responsibilities by saving energy consumed in school buildings and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Efforts to save energy used by schools or to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases should be connected with the efforts to educate the citizens in the age of climate changes, and should be developed into playing the new role of messenger transmitting the necessity and possibility of coping with climate changes. It can be said that the most essential strategy is to reduce energy consumption of schools and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

The greenhouse gases emitted by the schools in the jurisdiction of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in 2010 were estimated to be 324,745tCo2 , most of which were considered to be due to the uses of energy for heating and air conditioning and cooking school meals. The strategies were presented to reduce energy consumption and to use energy efficiently and to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases while attempting to energy conversion through the use of renewable energy such as solar-light energy. The research institute presented the target of reducing greenhouse gases emitted by the schools in the jurisdiction of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in three scenarios. The first scenario for the reduction target is to reduce greenhouse gases by about 14% by 2020 compared with 2010, the second one is to reduce by 18%, and the third one is to reduce by 23%. It is estimated to cost approximately 525.2 billion won to 680.5 billion won to carry out each scenario. And the energy saving effects of this are expected to reach about annual 20 billion won to 27.4 billion won, and in the case of rising energy prices due to such factors as high oil prices, these effects are expected to become greater. 

Written by Jae-kak, Han (Deputy Director: hanclk@hanmail.net)

4. ECPI Response 

1) Whenever I get some news or information about the Korea Green Growth policy, I feel ashamed. Recently, I got a file titled ‘Climate Change Adaptation Planning’ that was published by Durban’s Municipal Climate Protection Programme. 'Green Growth’ was mentioned in page 7. ECPI strongly say that Korea's green growth is based on the nuclear power extension and the huge riverside construction project. The other programs are just for show.

Please see our report -> http://enerpol.net/epbrd/bbs/board.php?bo_table=bbs18&wr_id=8

2) Korean government is not stopping nuclear development. According to a Bangkok post, “South Korea is also seeking to export its nuclear technology, with a goal of exporting 80 reactors by 2030.” Bangkok is one of Korea's target nations. Korea should know the concept of development. The meaning of development in the 21st century is the absence of nuclear development.

Bangkok post-> http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/253939/thailand-looming-nuclear-question

 
   
 




 
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