Seoul (AsiaNews) – It is time to rethink nuclear policies in order to preserve the land for future generations so that they can be managed in accordance with environmentally sustainable principles, said the president of South Korean bishops in a long article based on Pope Benedict XVI’ encyclical Caritas in Veritate of June 2009. Concerned about the consequences of the incident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which has also affected South Korea, the prelate looks at the issue atomic energy safety, including the issue of radioactive waste disposal.

In his article, which will appear in the July issue of Kyeong Hyang, Mgr Peter Kaung U-il, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK), writes that it is time to rethink nuclear policies. Titled “Christian Reflection on the Nuclear Power”, the article stresses that whilst scientists must provide expert opinion, ordinary people must pay close attention to the issue because nuclear plants can cause major disasters. The reference here is to last March nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.

Following the disaster, the Japanese government set up a no-go zone around the plant, ordering the evacuation of various villages and towns. For its part, the Education Ministry raised radiation limits in schools to avoid closing them down.

Japan’s nuclear disaster has shaken South Koreans. The bishops’ president used the event to address the issue of nuclear waste disposal. Storing nuclear waste underground raises questions about possible pollution to underground water, because of vulnerability to earthquakes, which are frequent in the region. Once radioactivity leaks from nuclear power plants, rehabilitation costs would be undoubtedly much higher than any economic benefits derived from nuclear facilities, the bishop writes.

Mgr Peter Kaung U-il ends his article by reminding his readers that “the environment is a gift of the Creator”, a common good, and that, for this reason, it must be preserved. New measures must be implemented in the energy field to avoid similar tragedies.

In mid-may, a delegation of Korean bishops, led by the president, visited the Diocese of Sendai, Japan, to show their solidarity to the communities affected by the earthquake and the nuclear disaster (see Joseph Yun Li-sun, “Korean Bishops in Japan: "May the tsunami be a new dawn for Land of the Rising Sun,” in AsiaNews, 17 May 2011).

The prelates also raised funds at home for their “Japanese brothers and sisters”. However, the most important thing was to reiterate the “closeness between the Catholics of the two countries,” a source said.