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S outh K orean Nuclear Energy Policies and the Public Agenda in the 21st Century
Author(s) -
Hermanns Heike
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/aspp.12179
Subject(s) - nuclear energy policy , nuclear power , energy policy , fukushima nuclear accident , public policy , political science , business , energy (signal processing) , accident (philosophy) , public administration , nuclear power plant , engineering , law , renewable energy , physics , nuclear physics , philosophy , epistemology , quantum mechanics , electrical engineering
Nuclear energy continues to be a major component of South Korean energy policy, despite the nuclear accident in Fukushima and several incidents in domestic nuclear power plants in 2011. There is growing unease among the Korean public regarding the safety of nuclear energy, but these grievances do not translate into demands for policy changes. This article introduces how different actors and their preferences affected the public agenda related to nuclear energy, comparing the protests against a nuclear waste storage facility in Buan County in 2003 and 2004 with the reactions to the Fukushima accident and domestic incidents in more recent years. Using agenda‐setting theory, this article aims to shed light on the dynamics of these events on actors, the decision‐making processes and the reasons for the lack of concerted effort by citizens and civic groups to demand changes in the country's energy policies.