THE IMPROVEMENT OF NUCLEAR SAFETY REGULATION: AMERICAN, EUROPEAN, JAPANESE, AND SOUTH KOREAN EXPERIENCES

  • Published : 2005.06.01

Abstract

Key concepts in South Korean nuclear safety regulation are safety and risk. Nuclear regulation in South Korea has required reactor designs and safeguards that reduce the risk of a major accident to less than one in a million reactor-years-a risk supposedly low enough to be acceptable. To date, in South Korean nuclear safety regulation has involved the establishment of many technical standards to enable administration enforcement. In scientific lawsuits in which the legal issue is the validity of specialized technical standards that are used for judge whether a particular nuclear power plant is to be licensed, the concept of uncertainty law is often raised with regard to what extent the examination and judgment by the judicial power affects a discretion made by the administrative office. In other words, the safety standards for nuclear power plants has been adapted as a form of the scientific technical standards widely under the idea of uncertainty law. Thus, the improvement of nuclear safety regulation in South Korea seems to depend on the rational lawmaking and a reasonable, judicial examination of the scientific standards on nuclear safety.

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References

  1. Law was fully amended on April 1, 1982 (Law No. 3549)
  2. On the legal structure of nuclear safety regulation in Korea in detail, Cho, Byung-Sun, 'Legislation for the Countermeasures on Special Issues of Nuclear Safety Regulation,' KINS/HR-527, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejon(1998); Cha, Cheol-Soon, 'Improvement of Nuclear Safety Regulation,' Bobjo, 458, 5-34.
  3. See Cho, Byung-Sun (Fn. 2), pp. 13
  4. On the legal scientific discussions generally, Kloepfer, Michael, Umweltrecht, C.H. Beck, Muenchen (1989), pp. 56
  5. Kloepfer, Michael (Fn. 4), pp. 56
  6. I agree with an examination from a comparative point of view: Kubifuji/Murada, Case Materials on Environmental Pollution Vol. 5: Nuclear Power, Biohazard, Shunposha, Tokyo (2001), pp. 93.
  7. See Kloepfer, Michael (Fn. 4), pp. 56
  8. See Jarass, Hans D., 'Das untergesetzliche Regelwerk im Bereich des Atom-und Strahlenschutzrechts,' in: Lukes, Rudolf ed., Reformueberlegungen zum Atomrecht, Carl Heymann, Koeln, Berlin, Bonn, Muenchen (1991), pp. 367
  9. Judgment of Japanese Supreme Court of Oct 29, 1992, Minshu Vol. 46 No. 7, pp. 1174
  10. In detail see Kubifuji/Murada (Fn. 6), pp. 96
  11. Judgment of German Federal Constitutional Court of 1978, 49 BVerfGE 89.
  12. See Jarass, Hans D.(Fn. 8), pp. 367; Kubifuji/Murada (Fn. 6), pp. 96