기후변화 대응과 핵물질 해상운송의 국제적 규제

Climate change problems caused by global warming are now affecting almost all areas of human activities, including politics, economics, and society beyond environmental issues. Appropriate response and solution to the problem of climate change became one of the most improtant matter for human survival. It is strongly argued that nuclear power is not a proper alternative energy source for coping with climate change due to the possibility of disasterous danger of nuclear accident, although it can be useful energy by producing little greenhouse gas. Whether nuclear power can be used as an available mean to respond to climate change, both internationally and domestically, depends on the probability of safety issues of nuclear energy This paper aims to identify and explore the international regulatory situation and the problem of the maritime transportation of nuclear material, one of the areas of nuclear safety. Despite of severe controversy, it is necessary to move forward to increase the capacity of nuclear power to respond to climate change. The use of nuclear energy would require the transportation of nuclear material at each stage of nuclear fuel life cycle. Because in some stages and situations, international maritime transportation is essential, the appropriate regulation of the international shipping of nuclear material is important to increase the usefulness of nuclear power to face climate change. The international community has exerted a lot of regulatory efforts, under the leadership of the IAEA and the IMO, and has adopted a number of norms that are in the form of treaties, guidelines or recommendations. However, it has many problems ensuring the safety of the international maritime trasportation of nuclear material. There are a couple of suggestions to solve the problem. Maritime transportation of nuclear materials should be regulated by reflecting the principles of the evolving international environment law, including prior notice and consultation and precautionary principle to prevent possible environmental contamination arising from transportation of nuclear material at sea. Cooperation among relevant international organizations such as IAEA, IMO, UNEP, WHO, and ILO should be made more systematically, and liability system for nuclear damage as a result of nuclear accident should be improved. The expertise in the transportation of nuclear material at sea should also be strengthened, and where possible, all fuel life cycle activities should be carried out within the same country to reduce the need for sea transportation and the amount of shipment of nuclear material being carried out. It should be recognized that it is urgent to enhance the safety of nuclear power to address such issues in regulating the safety of international oceanic transportation of nuclear material. A balanced approach is also necessary in the troubleshooting process. That is, it may be impossible to use maritime transportation of nuclear material, if too high level of standard is adopted with emphasis on safety only.