Yeongdeok County announced that it will hold a contest among county residents to name the new nuclear power plant from 8월 27일 to 9월 10일.
Determining the plant’s name does not immediately mean that construction has been completed or operations have begun.
By separating the judging of the naming contest from the regional preparation plans following site selection, it is possible to gauge how far the procedures related to the new Yeongdeok nuclear plant have progressed.
3-Line Summary
1. The contest to name Yeongdeok’s new nuclear plant has been held
2. Two candidate names will be submitted to KHNP
3. Finalizing the name is different from completing construction
Applications Accepted Through 9월 10일; Candidate Names Narrowed to Two
In its announcement on 8월 25일, Yeongdeok County said it would hold a contest among Yeongdeok residents to name the new nuclear power plant. The application period was set as a two-week period from 8월 27일 to 9월 10일. The county explained that it was seeking a symbolic name that would embody residents’ expectations for Yeongdeok’s future vision and regional development, beyond simply naming a power-generation facility.
Submitted proposals do not automatically become the official name. Yeongdeok County said that, after preliminary and first-round reviews examining compliance with the proposal criteria and possible duplication or plagiarism, the County Administration Coordination Committee’s final deliberation would select 2 candidate names. The shortlisted candidates will be submitted to Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, with the announcement of the final result and the awards scheduled for October.
The contest was open only to county residents, and the name itself was presented as something symbolizing the region’s identity and direction of development. Accordingly, this procedure is a preparatory stage for determining the plant’s official name; it cannot be viewed as a procedure announcing progress on facility construction or the start of commercial operations. The results of the applications and the final name cannot be confirmed from the reported material provided.
Regional Preparation Plans That Began After Site Selection
KPI News reported that the Site Selection Evaluation Committee for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s new nuclear plant construction selected and announced Yeongdeok on 6월 18일 as the construction site for 2 large nuclear power plants in the 1.4-gigawatt class. The same report said that 2 large nuclear power plants in the 1.4-gigawatt class were scheduled to be built there.
Yeongdeok County said that, following the selection of the candidate site, it signed a win-win cooperation agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power in July. It subsequently promoted job training and project development related to future energy strategic projects, and plans to hold departmental future-strategy briefing sessions beginning in October to identify the “100 Major Future Energy Strategic Projects.”
Straight News reported that Yeongdeok County intended to flesh out a regional development model linked to attracting the nuclear plant, including the creation of an industrial complex and the expansion of settlement infrastructure. Establishing a mid- to long-term fiscal plan for using statutory nuclear plant support funds and responding to the notification designating the planned area are also follow-up tasks presented by the county. However, these were announced as the county’s implementation plans and do not mean that the effects of regional development or the results of operating the support funds have already been finalized.
Procedures Being Taken Up Again After the Previous Cancellation
According to KPI News, Yeongdeok was designated in 2011 as the planned site for the Cheonji Nuclear Power Plant, but the project was canceled around 2018 due to the nuclear phase-out policy. The current site selection and naming contest have special significance for the region in that they are procedures related to a new nuclear plant being pursued again afterward.
The naming contest was presented as one of the follow-up procedures for constructing the new nuclear plant. Yeongdeok County presented a sequence in which candidate names would be selected through a contest among county residents and then submitted to KHNP. Even if site selection has taken place, the selection of candidate names, the announcement of the final name, and actual construction and operations are separate stages.
As Yeongdeok County has announced that it will present the final results and hold the awards ceremony in October, the next result that can be confirmed in relation to this contest is that announcement. Until then, the facts that can be stated definitively are that Yeongdeok County announced a naming contest for county residents and plans to prepare regional projects linked to the nuclear plant.
References
Tags #NuclearPowerPlant #NuclearPlant #YeongdeokNuclearPlant #YeongdeokCounty #NewNuclearPlant #NuclearPlantNamingContest #KoreaHydroNuclearPower #KHNP #NuclearPlantConstruction #NuclearPlantSite #EnergyPolicy #RegionalDevelopment