South Korea president-elect favors switch back in favor of nuclear power

South Korea's President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who won the March 9 election on a platform of giving nuclear power greater priority in the country's power mix, is being urged to take his first step to implement his campaign pledges by reviving a suspended project to build Shin Hanul-3 and -4, which would be the country's fourth pair of APR1400s.

Suk-yeol, of the conservative People Power Party, defeated presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, who had vowed to press ahead with incumbent President Moon Jae-in's nuclear phaseout.

The Korean Nuclear Society, a group of some 5,000 nuclear engineers and academics, in a statement March 11 welcomed Yoon's election and called for the incoming president to restart works to build Shin Hanul-3, and -4 upon taking office.

"The president-elect is strongly urged to resume works to construct Shin Hanul-3, and -4, which have been suspended for the past five years, as early as possible," the KNS said.

State-owned nuclear power operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power received a construction license in February 2017 for Shin Hanul-3 and -4 and took steps on the project such as carrying out design work and land purchases, while signing contracts with local construction companies and other partners, with an aim to achieve commercial operation of Shin Hanul-3 in 2022 and Shin Hanul-4 in 2023.

However, work has been suspended since December 2017 under the nuclear phaseout policy initiated by Moon, who was inaugurated in May 2017 with a pledge to phase out nuclear power completely in South Korea in the 2070s.

In the face of protests and concerns about potential power shortages, the Moon government in February 2021 extended the construction license given to KHNP for Shin Hanun-3 and -4 by two years until December 2023, leaving a chance for the reactors to be revived under Moon's successor, who takes office in May.

Without the extension of the license, which was set to expire in February 2021, the project would have permanently ended.

"Shin Hanul-3 and -4 are necessary to restore the country's nuclear industry. Furthermore, emission-free nuclear energy is necessary to achieve carbon neutrality while reducing coal-fired power plants, which are the main carbon polluter" in South Korea, Kim Hui-ryong, an energy professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, said in an interview March 15.

Moon's nuclear phaseout was politically motivated and not based on the country's long-term energy plans, Kim noted.

Moon's nuclear phaseout drive was popular in the early days of his administration, but a survey jointly conducted by the Seoul Business Daily newspaper and the Korean Association of Electoral Studies published Jan. 18 found that only 22% of those polled still support the move, the lowest among Moon's main policies. The poll surveyed more than 1,300 people with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

Another survey by the Kookmin Ilbo Daily newspaper and local pollster KSOI Dec. 9 also showed only 24.8% of South Koreans support the nuclear phaseout, while 63.9% want resumption of nuclear power plant construction, including Shin Hanul-3, and -4, or want the country to build even more reactors. That poll surveyed about 1,000 people with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Yoon, who was the prosecution chief until March 2021 and had no prior political experience, has used Moon's unpopular push for nuclear phaseout to win support from conservatives and centrists in South Korea.

Candidate visit to Hanul nuclear complex

Just after winning the PPP's presidential candidacy nomination, Yoon visited the Hanul nuclear power complex in Uljin on the country's east coast Dec. 29 where Shin Hanul-3, and -4 were to be built, and unveiled his campaign for a revival of nuclear power in the country.

Standing before nuclear reactors at the complex, Yoon vowed if elected to resume construction of Shin Hanul-3, and -4 and make South Korea a powerhouse in nuclear power generation which exports 10 nuclear power plants by 2030.

Yoon travelled to Uljin again March 15 as president-elect and told residents and officials there that work to build the pair of APR1400s would start again "swiftly" under his presidency.

In his campaign promise, Yoon also said he will keep the proportion of nuclear energy in the country's power mix at 30% by approving continued operation of aging reactors as long as they are safe, a significant departure from Moon's push to reduce nuclear energy's share of the power mix to 17% by 2034 and 6.1% by 2050, before the country becomes "free of nuclear" power by 2079.

Moon planned to shut aging reactors permanently without extending their initial operating lifespans. During his presidency, the country's two oldest reactors, the 607-MW Kori-1 and the 685-MW Wolsong-1, were retired in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Under Moon's initiative, 11 more reactors with a combined capacity of 9.5 GW would have been closed permanently by 2034, out of the current total of 24 with a combined 23.25 GW capacity.

Yoon, who will take office May 10, is set to scrap Moon's plans as the president-elect and has said more nuclear power plants are needed to meet the country's mounting power demand and keep electricity prices low for energy-intensive manufacturers.

Yoon is also expected to accept the request by the Korean Nuclear Society to extend the operation of the 650-MW Kori-2 reactor. The license for Kori-2, which started commercial operation in July 1983, is scheduled to expire in April 2023.

The new government would have to extend the licenses of five nuclear units to meet its stated goals, S&P Global Commodity Insights analyst Andre Lambine said in a report March 13. Seven units other than Kori-2 are scheduled to shut by 2030, he noted.

Policy reversal brings protests

Yoon's pro-nuclear stance has triggered protests by anti-nuclear power groups. They have staged rallies in front of the PPP's offices to blast Yoon's policies on nuclear energy.

Yoo Seung-hoon, a professor and energy policy specialist at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, stressed in an interview the need to revive Shin Hanul-3, and -4 and extend operations of reactors to meet electricity demand and reduce carbon emissions, but said the incoming government should take measures to address concerns about nuclear safety and prepare for safe disposal of spent fuel and other nuclear waste.