민주주의 실현을 위한 원자력안전법제의 과제와 개선방향

This dissertation aims to explore the public legal theory of nuclear safety legislation, which has been of little academic rationale, and to suggest the challenges and directions of improvement of the nuclear safety legislation for realizing democracy. The problem recognition of this paper starts with the question “Why is democracy not fully applied in the field of nuclear safety? How should the laws and systems of nuclear safety be restructured if democracy is applied to the nuclear safety sector in its entirety?” Based on this awareness of the issue, this study argues that, as with legislation in the general sector, constitutional principles should be applied in the field of nuclear safety. Especially, the principle of citizen participation based on democracy should be accepted as a core principle of the nuclear safety legislation. To this end, this research lays the foundation for the challenges and directions of improvement of the nuclear safety legislation by clarifying the theoretical basis of the nuclear safety legislation based on the concept of risk and safety, and deriving the justification of citizen participation in the professional field through constitutional discussion of expertise and democracy. The first challenge of the nuclear safety legislation for realizing democracy is to adopt the principle of citizen participation based on democracy as the core principle of the nuclear safety legislation. It is also necessary to embrace the risk society paradigm and pursue the safety communication paradigm that requests citizen participation in order to transition to democratic nuclear safety governance. In addition, it is desirable that the information disclosure system on nuclear safety and local resident participation system be linked and operated in order to implement the principle of citizen participation. The improvement direction of the nuclear safety legislation is to revise Article 2-2 of the Nuclear Safety Act to reflect the principle of securing technological safety and social safety, and the principle of citizen participation as the fundamental principles of the nuclear safety legislation. Moreover, it is necessary to enact the ‘Nuclear Safety Information Disclosure and Communication Act’ to promote the information disclosure system on nuclear safety and local resident participation system. Especially, the Nuclear Safety Council should be given substantive authority to ensure that the Council, composed of representative personnel, can act as the communication channel, the public sphere, and the monitoring agency.