The Board of Audit and Inspection(BAI) has concluded that there were problems in the economic evaluation that served as the basis to shut down the Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor before the end of its life cycle.
The audit agency made the assessment on Tuesday as it disclosed the results of its inspection on whether it was appropriate to prematurely shut down the nation’s second-oldest reactor in the country's southeastern city of Gyeongju.
The agency’s disclosure came a day after it adopted an inspection report on the matter and roughly a year after it launched its inspection at the request of the National Assembly.
However, the audit agency concluded that it would be difficult to pursue breach of trust charges against the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company’s board of directors, which decided to shut down the reactor before its time.
Initially, the nuclear power company injected 700 billion won into repairing the Wolsong-1 reactor and extending its 30-year life cycle by ten years until November 2022, but that plan was scrapped following the board’s decision.