Government to Increase Nuclear Power Dependency to 29% by 2035

The Korean government has decided to limit nuclear power to a maximum of 29 percent of the total national energy generation for the country. This is a slightly adjusted figure after the government accepted the energy plan that the Public and Private Sector Co-operation Working Group recommended in October of this year.

As such, the paradigm of energy management is shifting, as policy will also change from the supply-side oriented policy of seeking out new projects to a demand-control oriented policy focused on a diversified power and energy management systems.

The Ministry of Industry and Energy has decided on the atomic power allocation plan after reviewing the working group’s recommendation, which recommended from 22 to 29 percent.

The Ministry revealed the major contents of the 2nd Master Energy Plan to the Industry and Trade Committee of the National Assembly, containing such moves above, on December 10. 

In the First Master Energy Plan proposed by the government in 2008, nuclear power was planned to be increased to 41 percent of total power generation by 2030. However, after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, in addition to a  nuclear component accident in Korea, concerns have been raised about using nuclear power, leading to the working group to lower the allocation to as low as 22 percent. 

At the moment, nuclear power makes up 26.4 percent of the total local energy supply, much lower than previously proposed in the first master energy plan. The weight of atomic power in the second energy plan, however, is expected to inch up compared to the current one, likely resulting in the construction of 10 more nuclear power plants.