Minutes from last week's nuclear board meeting that decided on the temporary suspension of reactors under construction showed that the board members had also debated what to do after the suspension period ends and compensation measures, lawmakers who obtained the minutes said Tuesday.

When Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power held a meeting of its board of directors on Friday, the 13 members discussed what they should do if a final decision on the new reactors cannot be reached within the given three-month review period. 

Records show one member saying the board needs to make a decision again at that point, with another member insisting that construction should be restarted, Reps. Kim Jung-hoon and Lee Che-ik of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party said.

The KHNP board had convened a gathering after its scheduled meeting on the previous day was blocked by the union opposing the halt to the construction of two reactors, Shin-Kori 5 and 6, under way in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The Moon Jae-in administration last month declared that South Korea will go nuclear-free, promising to shut down aged reactors, cease construction of new ones and provide energy through clean and renewable sources.

Some 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion) out of the 8.6 trillion-won project had gone into building the two reactors with the construction 30 percent complete. The project entails 164 contracts with builders and subcontractors.

The government said it will gauge public opinion and views of nuclear specialists during the three months before making a final decision.

An executive board member said KHNP should decide again on what to do if this process is not completed within the given period, while a non-executive member argued that the construction should be resumed if there is no conclusion by then.

KHNP President Lee Kwan-sup expressed objections to automatically restarting construction, according to the minutes.

"It would be realistically difficult to suddenly restart construction when public discussion is ongoing," he said at the meeting.

The consensus was that the board would need to address the matter in order to take responsibility, and it was eventually accepted by the board.

The minutes then showed that the board members went into details of compensating subcontractors for work suspension, estimated at 100 billion won.

A board member explained that the contract has a clause pledging due reparations by KHNP in case of work delay. The board decided to divide the losses into a monthly sum and pay them during the suspension period.

Lee said KHNP will do its best to prevent financial harm to subcontractors and to ensure that the 1,000 employees at the construction site do not lose their jobs. (Yonhap)