泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] The nuclear power generation industry and the video gaming industry

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

The nuclear power generation industry and the video gaming industry

 

The Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant Units 5&6 construction is scheduled to begin again soon. Last July, the Moon administration launched an ad-hoc committee to gather public opinion on whether to permanently halt the building of the nuclear reactors while temporarily called off constructing power plants. The committee offered a variety of sources to about 500 "citizen jurors", conducted surveys, hold public hearings over about four months and submitted the final recommendations to the Government. According to the recommendations, 59.5 percent supported a reconstruction with 40.5 percent objecting to the current policy. Also, 53.2 percent recommended to gradually lower reliance on nuclear power from now on.

 

I believe that stop building the 5&6 plants is desirable. Nuclear fission energy, which is commonly called nuclear power, is not simply a matter of economic logic. Some people concerned that South Korea will fall behind in the over ￦400 trillion nuclear reactor construction market, however, more than half of it is the needs of China and India. And both of the countries already have their original techniques. Of course, Korea cannot easily have the other half percent market share without fierce competition in the global market. As I noted earlier, it's hard to be perfectly recovered from a nuclear accident such as Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster or Chernobyl disaster even on a national level. The latter is one of the reasons why the Soviet Union collapsed, which means that the nuclear accident can lead a country to go bankrupt. Therefore, I'm opposed to increasing the number of nuclear power plants on economic grounds taking high risks.

 

I don't think that the decision of the committee is wrong. And this column is not to let the readers know that I'm an anti-unclear power. Despite the final recommendations that I disagree with, I envy the 500 citizen jurors who couldn't help but accept the results thanks to the rational and fair negotiation process.

 

The local gaming industry has given legal sanctions from many organizations concerned. Many parent-related groups have claimed that video game is very addictive and distracting students causing poor grades and health problems from insufficient sleep. However, despite countless criticisms and restrictions, there was no impartial and transparent process of sufficient discussions about the video game-related problems or appropriateness of the present government's policies through an ad-hoc committee. The video gaming industry is emerging as a globally promising business, unlike unclear power that some European countries are phasing-out. Besides, it's not an inherently dangerous industry that could kill tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in an industrial accident. I hope that the government will listen to public opinions to regulate the video game industry.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui