[Editorial] Yoon’s dangerous delusion that nuclear power is an industry of the future

Posted on : 2022-06-23 16:53 KST Modified on : 2022-06-23 16:53 KST
Inflation is a ripple, but climate change is a tidal wave threatening humanity’s very survival
President Yoon Suk-yeol takes a tour of Doosan Enerbility in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on June 22, 2022. (pool photo)
President Yoon Suk-yeol takes a tour of Doosan Enerbility in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on June 22, 2022. (pool photo)

The Yoon administration unveiled a plan on Wednesday to provide the nuclear power industry with projects worth 92.5 billion won this year, adding up to 1 trillion won through 2025. The government intends to quickly order construction to start on units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Shin Hanul nuclear power plant to create a large number of jobs.

While serving as prosecutor general under President Moon Jae-in, Yoon Suk-yeol regarded the Moon administration’s nuclear phaseout and pressure over an investigation into the Wolsong nuclear power plant as his motivations for entering politics. Now that Yoon is president himself, he has begun moving to overturn the five years of nuclear phaseout that he provocatively described as “idiotic.”

The nuclear phaseout plan can be slowed or postponed depending on changing circumstances. But disturbingly, Yoon and his administration seem to have been deluded into thinking that nuclear power is an industry of the future and are thus determined to actively expand the sector.

Despite the Moon administration’s declaration of a gradual nuclear phaseout, it took little action aside from halting construction on reactors No. 3 and No. 4 at Shin Hanul. The permanent closure of Wolsong 1 — which only accounted for a tiny fraction of the country’s power generation — came after a district court struck down an extension of its operational lifespan.

Nevertheless, Yoon and the People Power Party have continued to make the unreasonable claim that Moon’s nuclear phaseout has devastated the nuclear power industry. The government support package unveiled on Wednesday appears aimed at rationalizing that claim while underlining Yoon’s determination to resume construction on the two Shin Hanul reactors.

The government said that it would invest 670 billion won this year and at least 3 trillion won between 2023 and 2025 in nuclear energy R&D. It also promised to invest 399.2 billion won through 2028 in developing and commercializing a homegrown small modular reactor.

“If we’d made the nuclear power ecosystem even stronger instead of being so idiotic over the past five years, I bet we wouldn’t have any competitors right now,” Yoon said while meeting with industry affiliates on a visit to Doosan Enerbility, in Changwon, on Wednesday.

Yoon stresses the future potential of the nuclear power market and has adopted the vision of making Korea a global leader in the nuclear power industry.

But that reflects his short-sightedness and amounts to tricking the public. While some countries are looking into the efficient use of nuclear power as a stopgap solution to the spike in energy prices, hardly anyone regards nuclear energy as an industry of the future.

That’s because of the still unsolved issue of how to dispose of nuclear waste. The EU included nuclear power in its taxonomy for green industries on the assumption that there will be permanent disposal sites for radioactive waste.

Inflation is a ripple, but climate change is a tidal wave threatening humanity’s very survival. We need to bear in mind that falling behind in the area of renewable energy, not nuclear power, is what will precipitate a crisis.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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