South Korea plans to build new nuclear reactors and extend the life of ten other reactors to help reduce the country’s CO2 emissions.
Nuclear energy must also secure South Korea’s energy supply.
The new reactors should be ready by 2030. President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, is an outspoken supporter of nuclear energy. He argues that nuclear energy, together with renewable energy sources, is the best way to combat greenhouse gas emissions.
The previous government wanted to phase out the use of nuclear energy in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. Work on two new reactors will now resume.
The aim is that by 2030 more than 30 percent of the electricity production in South Korea will come from nuclear energy. In addition, the country, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, wants to increase strategic stocks of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be less sensitive to price fluctuations.