South Korea's state-run nuclear watchdog on Tuesday appealed a recent court's order to cancel its decision to extend the operation of a nuclear reactor that was originally planned to go offline in 2012, legal sources said.
Last week, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of a group of local residents who sought to annul the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission's approval of a 10-year extension of the reactor in Gyeongju, some 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The Wolseong-1 reactor was shut down in 2012 after reaching the end of its 30-year commercial operation period, but the commission lengthened the operation for another decade and restarted it in June 2015.
The decision sparked safety concerns in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Nullifying the commission's decision, the court cited the failure of the state-run nuclear watchdog to follow due procedures.
The commission, however, has maintained that it has underwent a proper decision-making process to extend the operation.
South Korea has 23 nuclear reactors in operation from which it gets about 30 percent of its electricity supply. (Yonhap)