Owing to the government's radical nuclear phase-out policy, core manpower of the nuclear power-related companies are leaving. Some of them are being transferred to overseas companies, raising concerns that South Korea's nuclear power plant technology, which has been developed over the past 50 years, may be leaked.
According to Rep. Chung Yoo-seop of the Liberty Korea Party, a total of 264 people left from three nuclear power-related state-run companies, including Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) in 2018.
Among them, 144 employees voluntarily quit their jobs, not retirement or dismissal. Last year, 74 people resigned from KHNP, 49 from KEPCO KPS, and 21 from KEPCO Engineering & Construction.
A total of 161 people from these three state-run companies resigned in 2017, when the policy on de-nuclearization began. Among them, 120 were voluntary retirees. During the two-year de-nuclearization policy, 264 nuclear-related workers at the three state-run companies resigned.
Rep. Chung said that some of the retirees of the three state-run companies were transferred to overseas nuclear power plants such as ENEC and Nawah Energy of the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, Jeong Bum-jin, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyunghee University, said, "If a person leaves, the technology will leave. It was difficult for Korea to become a world nuclear power country, but the tower that has been constructed is on the verge of collapse due to the government's nuclear phase-out policy."