A Korean experience in communication to the public the heavy water leak at Wolsong NPP in 1999

A nuclear accident with a credible radiological consequence places, as a matter of fact, a great socio-political impact on the country. It causes health effects to the public as well as to the workers at nuclear power plant, property damages and also various socio-psychological impacts. And also it affects significantly neighboring countries due to trans-boundary characteristics of the radioactive releases. In that regard, the prevention of such a radiological accident is fundamentally important. However, as we cannot attain zero risk for diversified industrial activities in modern society, we regulate nuclear facilities, for example, to achieve and maintain safety at a level which the society can agree to accept. Regulators are increasingly recognizing these days that some kind of efforts should be made to strengthen the communication channels with many stake-holders in the society. If the public is not provided with proper information on the safety of nuclear facilities, they cannot build confidence in nuclear safety and it may cause a social concern that may sometimes lead to social unrest. Therefore, there is a good reason for the regulators to make efforts to improve communications to the public. In Korea, we experienced a heavy water leak incident at Wolsong nuclear power plant four days after the Tokai-Mura accident in 1999, which drew a considerable attention from all over the world, even though its impact in terms of safety and health consequences was negligible. The measures, taken by the Korean regulatory authority and the utility upon Wolsong incident, were severely criticized by the media and the public and national debates continued for several weeks. In my presentation, I will briefly review this case in light of risk communication and discuss its implications and lessons learned from this incident. (author)