Ministry of Industry: "No Legal Issues in Establishing Nuclear Phase-Out Without Revising the 2nd Energy Basic Plan"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy explained that it "judges there is no legal issue" as the Board of Audit and Inspection began an audit on the illegality of the nuclear phase-out policy formulation process.

An official from the Board of Audit and Inspection stated on the 14th, "Since the 11th, we have started an audit on whether the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's formalization of the nuclear phase-out policy in the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand was legally proper."

In response, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy issued a press release saying, "The Ministry cannot confirm the contents of the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit," and added, "The Ministry judges that there is no legal problem in establishing the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand without revising the 2nd Basic Plan for Energy, which is a non-binding administrative plan."

The Basic Plan for Energy (Egi-bon) is the nation's highest-level statutory energy plan established every five years. The Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand (Jeon-gi-bon) is confirmed by the Ministry every two years and is a subordinate policy to the Basic Plan for Energy.

According to this principle, there has been an argument that to include the nuclear phase-out policy in the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, it would have been proper to revise the 2nd Basic Plan for Energy established in 2014 or to implement it after establishing the 3rd Basic Plan for Energy in 2019.

The 2nd Basic Plan for Energy set a target of 29% nuclear power ratio by 2035, but the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand reduced the nuclear power share to 11.7% by 2030. Because of this, voices claim that the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand conflicts with the 2nd Basic Plan for Energy.

The government adopted the nuclear phase-out roadmap at the Cabinet meeting in October 2017, the first year of the administration, without revising the 2nd Basic Plan for Energy, and then finalized the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand in December of the same year, officially confirming the nuclear phase-out.

The 3rd Basic Plan for Energy, announced in June 2019, included content to reduce nuclear power and increase the proportion of renewable energy generation by 2040.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.