The Policy Making and NPP Construction Processes in Korea: The reality of civil participation and a suggestion to improve the public acceptance

Many papers criticizing nuclear energy argue that there is a problem in ensuring the safety of citizens since the processes of energy policy establishment and construction of nuclear facilities do not provide enough opportunity for civil participation. This paper examines whether this criticism is reasonable by examining relevant aspects of nuclear related policy making and licensing processes and draws a suggestion to enhance the PA. This paper showed that the ethical failure is a root cause of nuclear PA fall, and that it's not desirable to expand the participation of anti-nuclear NGOs but it is urgent to raise the trust of the government and experts. It is, therefore, concluded that it is necessary to establish and strengthen experts' ethics early to enhance the nuclear PA in Korea.