Remarks made by President Moon that the nation will only be nuclear power free in “at least 60 years” at a presidential press conference yesterday has garnered comparisons between South Korea’s nuclear power deactivation policy and other nations. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Remarks made by President Moon that the nation will only be nuclear power free in “at least 60 years” at a presidential press conference yesterday has garnered comparisons between South Korea’s nuclear power deactivation policy and other nations.
Held to mark his 100th day in office, President Moon expressed the current administration’s position on the handling of the nation’s nuclear power plants by saying that “policies to deactivate the reactors will not be implemented in an urgent matter”.
Furthermore, the president stated that the official policy going forward would be to “close down power plants that reach the end of their operational lifespans”.
Taken at face value, Moon’s statement of “nuclear free in 60 years” means that the country will deactivate its last nuclear power plant in 2082. That is because the highly publicized Singori 5 and Singori 6 plants that are currently under construction are slated to be completed between 2021 and 2022.
As President Moon also mentioned that “Europe and various industrialized countries are pursuing an extremely rapid approach [to deactivation] by stopping nuclear power [generation] in a number of years”, it makes sense to take a brief look at the policies that those nations have undertaken.
In the wake of the globally reverberating aftershocks of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, Germany unveiled an initiative in May of that year to completely decommission its 17 plants by 2022.
Taiwan will follow in Germany’s footsteps as Prime Minister Tsai Ing-Wen issued an addendum outlining the phasing out of nuclear power to revisions to the island nation’s electricity law in January. Taiwan will aim to shutter its six power plants by 2025, when the permit for the latest plant will expire.
Belgium was ahead of the curve when it passed a law banning the construction of new nuclear power plants and requiring the full decommissioning of plants that have been in operation for more than 40 years.
However, the 2003 law was revised twice to extend the lifespans of two reactors by 10 years. According to current legislation, the full de-nuclearization of Belgium’s energy sources will be achieved by 2025.
That is because the highly publicized Singori 5 and Singori 6 plants that are currently under construction are slated to be completed between 2021 and 2022. (Image: 123RF)
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
