Ministry of Industry Announces Major Overhaul of the 'Energy Constitution'... Plans to Remove Final Nail in Nuclear Phase-Out Policy

Comprehensive Overhaul of Energy Basic Plan Inevitable... Yoon's Nuclear Policy Must Be Included
Ministry of Industry Reports Nuclear Roadmap to Transition Team... Emphasis on 'Practicality'
Shinhanul Units 3 and 4 Expected to Be Built in 2025... Distance from 'Immediate Resumption'
Environmental Impact Assessment Expired Last Year... Review of Permit Procedure Shortening Underway

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol announced his nuclear power plant pledge last December at the site of the suspension of construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 in Uljin County, Gyeongbuk, during his presidential campaign.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's announcement of a major overhaul of the Basic Energy Plan is interpreted as an official declaration of the abandonment of the nuclear phase-out policy. The plan to consider skipping or shortening some permitting procedures to immediately resume construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4, a key pledge of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, is also in the same context.

The ‘Nail in the Coffin’ for Nuclear Phase-Out in the 3rd Basic Energy Plan

The Basic Energy Plan is the highest-level statutory plan in the energy sector, formulated every five years. The Basic Electricity Supply and Demand Plan, established by the government every two years, is also developed under the framework of the Basic Energy Plan. It contains the ‘energy blueprint’ considering the next 20 years and serves as a barometer to gauge the government's energy policy direction. The Lee Myung-bak administration established the 1st Basic Energy Plan (2008?2030), and the Moon Jae-in administration set the 3rd Basic Energy Plan (2019?2040).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy holds the view that a complete overhaul of the Basic Energy Plan is inevitable to promote the nuclear policy envisioned by President-elect Yoon. This is because the 3rd Basic Energy Plan established by the Moon administration contains a ‘nail in the coffin’ for nuclear power. The current government specified in the 3rd Basic Energy Plan, deliberated and approved in 2019, that the share of renewable energy generation should increase from the existing 7.6% to up to 35% by 2040. The nuclear power generation target of 29%, which was specified in the 2nd Basic Energy Plan (2014?2035) established during the Park Geun-hye administration, was not mentioned at all. This contrasts with the Lee Myung-bak administration’s ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ policy, which set the nuclear power generation target at 41% in the 1st Basic Energy Plan.

This is why the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy was the first to announce in the transition team’s briefing that it would revise the Basic Energy Plan. The 3rd Basic Energy Plan, which does not mention nuclear power itself, cannot smoothly promote key pledges of President-elect Yoon, such as the resumption of construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4. Even if economic evaluations are conducted to continue the operation of aging nuclear power plants, the Basic Energy Plan must support it.

The Ministry also presented a concrete roadmap to the transition team for resuming construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4. First, the Ministry plans to reflect President-elect Yoon’s nuclear policy in the 4th Basic Energy Plan and the 10th Basic Electricity Supply and Demand Plan within this year. If these procedures proceed as planned, by the end of 2024, 11 ministries including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will carry out the power development project implementation plan. The power development project implementation plan is an essential procedure for installing power facilities such as nuclear power plants. According to the Ministry’s roadmap, the construction permit for Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4, under the jurisdiction of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, is scheduled for the end of 2024.

Roadmap Emphasizes ‘Practicality’

The problem is that the schedule planned by the Ministry is far from the ‘immediate resumption’ emphasized by President-elect Yoon. The Ministry reported to the transition team that construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 could be resumed in early 2025. In response, the transition team demanded the Ministry to "promptly review procedural measures for resuming construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 and tasks for restoring the nuclear ecosystem."

The roadmap presented by the Ministry appears to emphasize ‘practicality.’ Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 only received a power generation business permit in 2017, and there are numerous procedures to go through to resume construction. Construction has been halted for more than five years, so environmental impact assessments and other permitting procedures already completed may need to be restarted. Although Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 underwent an environmental impact assessment in 2016, its validity expired in August last year.

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is delivering a greeting at the Economic Division 2 and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport briefing held at the Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 25th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The Ministry has also left open the possibility of shortening or skipping some permitting procedures to expedite construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4. A representative measure is applying the environmental impact assessment data of Shin Hanul Units 1 and 2, located near the Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 site, to Units 3 and 4. This could shorten the environmental impact assessment period, which normally takes 1 to 2 years. The Ministry is also reportedly planning to consider using the exemption regulation for reassessment of environmental impact assessments. Under current law, if there has been no significant change in the environment around the site during the suspension period of the nuclear power project, the approval authority and the Minister of Environment can agree to exclude it from reassessment.

However, there are expectations that it will be difficult for the Ministry to push for immediate resumption by forcibly skipping some permitting procedures. This is because the prosecution has recently begun full-scale investigations of public officials who led the current government’s policies, including raids on the Ministry and power generation public enterprises related to the ‘nuclear phase-out blacklist suspicion.’ The fact that energy policies tend to ‘swing’ depending on the administration cannot be overlooked either.

A government official said, "From the perspective of officials in charge, there is inevitably a burden because they do not know how the next administration will change the nuclear policy direction five years later," adding, "It would be more accurate to see the immediate resumption of construction of Shin Hanul Units 3 and 4 as an ‘immediate resumption of procedures.’"

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