South Korea to build more nuclear power plants as phase-out plans scrapped

President Yoon Suk-yeol rejects the idea of phasing out nuclear energy and made it a key pledge of his election campaign to boost investment in the industry

South Korea’s U-turn towards a pronuclear energy policy includes resuming construction on two new reactors and extending the operations of existing ones

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol admires a model of a domestically developed nuclear reactor as he tours a factory in Changwon last month. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:03pm, 5 Jul 2022Updated: 8:16am, 6 Jul 2022

South Korea will build four more nuclear reactors by 2030, and extend the life of 10 older units, as the new government of President Yoon Suk-yeol backs atomic power as a key tool to zero out emissions.

Atomic energy will provide more than 30 per cent of the nation’s electricity generation by the end of the decade, up from 27.4 per cent last year, the energy ministry said on Tuesday. It didn’t break down targets for the rest of the energy mix.

Yoon, who took office in May, was a staunch supporter of nuclear energy throughout his presidential campaign, claiming it should be utilised along with renewable sources to achieve emissions targets.

A Korean activist protests in Seoul last month against Japan’s plan to discharge radioactive water from Fukushima into the sea. South Korea had sought to reduce the role of nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 disaster. Photo: AFP

While the country is maintaining the emissions goal set by the previous government, renewable energy’s share in the country’s energy mix will be “realistically adjusted to below 30 per cent” by 2030, a ministry official said, compared with 6.3 per cent last year, and the previous administration’s lofty 2050 projection of 60.9-70.8 per cent. The official declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Coal will be “reasonably” reduced, while keeping supply-and-demand conditions in consideration, the ministry added.

“The fact that the new government is saying renewable energy will be adjusted at a ‘reasonable level’ basically means it will be lowering the renewable electricity target,” Jang Daul, a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia based in Seoul, said by phone.

Under former President Moon Jae-in’s administration, decarbonisation policies were set out along with plans to phase out nuclear energy, a policy that Yoon’s office in April said could see electricity costs jump five-fold by 2050. The construction of the Shin Hanul No. 3 and 4 reactors, which were scrapped under the previous government, will be resumed, the energy ministry said.

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