Gwacheon Juam Data Center: “Electromagnetic fields pose no harm; noise and vibration meet standards” ... It is time to step up to resolve the conflict

[Financial News] Data centers, essential infrastructure in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), are facing opposition from residents in many parts of the country. The small data center in Gwacheon Juam District is also drawing objections from nearby residents over electromagnetic fields, noise and vibration, and the urban heat island effect. Experts say these are excessive “concerns” with little scientific basis.
Gwacheon Juam Daeto REITs (Juam Daeto REITs), the project operator for the data center in Gwacheon Juam District, said on the 7th that it had held a public briefing on the 6th and shared the results of an “environmental impact review” conducted by a group of experts.
The project will be built on Business Block 1-9 in Juam District. It will occupy a 2,274-square-meter site, with three basement levels and seven above-ground floors, a total floor area of 14,538 square meters, and a power intake capacity of 9.5 MW. Small data centers support services such as autonomous driving, smart cities, and robot control near urban centers.
At the briefing, Juam Daeto REITs explained that the data center would draw power through the same 22.9 kV distribution lines as nearby apartments and office buildings, so no separate transmission towers or ultra-high-voltage transmission lines would be built. It also said that many data centers are already located close to residential areas. One data center in Bundang is just 5 meters from a residential area.
It said measurements of electromagnetic fields around the site came in at a maximum of 1.46 mG, a minimum of 0.02 mG, and an average of 0.44 mG. These levels are far below those from household electrical appliances, and all predicted and measured values are no more than 0.2% of the domestic standard of 833 mG, it said. The impact on the human body is negligible, it added.
The company said concerns about the urban heat island effect are also excessive. Heat released by the chillers is designed to dissipate quickly into the surrounding air so that it does not affect temperatures in nearby residential areas. A simulation found that the urban heat island effect feared by residents would be almost nonexistent, it said.
Noise and vibration will be managed with soundproofing and vibration-control measures for each piece of equipment. The plan is to install such equipment on the generators and chillers to reduce noise and vibration. The projected levels, incorporating these measures, meet both government standards for residential areas: 45 dB(A) for noise and 49 dB(V) for vibration, it said.
A fire-safety plan was also presented. The plan is to set up a 24-hour, 365-day monitoring system and separate the battery room with firewalls to prevent a fire from spreading. The design will include additional automatic fire detection sensors and alarms, fire compartments, and smoke-control facilities, making it more robust than that of a typical office building.
It said the plan would maximize the separation between the residential area and the battery room to minimize the risk of damage spreading to homes in the event of a fire. A person involved in the environmental impact analysis urged residents to “bear in mind that the environmental impact analysis and review found there would be almost no effects of the kind you are concerned about.”
Experts say conflicts over data centers should not be left solely to residents, project operators, and local governments. A Samsung Securities report forecast that South Korea’s data center capacity would grow from about 1.9 GW at the end of 2025 to 14.8 GW in 2030.
A person involved said, “Baseless rumors about data centers are fueling NIMBY sentiment.” Moon Byung-seop, vice president of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, stressed, “Data centers are not IT facilities but national infrastructure construction projects,” adding, “The main cause of bottlenecks, including the lack of procedures for handling conflicts, lies in the institutional framework.” 
[email protected] Lee Jong-bae Reporter