Opposition Cuts SMR Budget... Ruling Party Proposes SMR 'Infrastructure Establishment Act'

Rep. Choi Hyung-doo of the People Power Party is attending and speaking at the 8th meeting of the Media Arbitration Act Consultative Group held at the National Assembly on the 17th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] While the opposition party has announced plans to completely cut the budget for innovative Small Modular Reactors (SMR) citing issues such as climate response, the ruling party has proposed the SMR Infrastructure Act.

On the 14th, Choi Hyung-doo, a member of the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee from the People Power Party, officially proposed the "Act on SMR Technology Development and Infrastructure Establishment."

This bill was co-proposed by lawmakers Kang Ki-yoon, Kim Sung-won, Kim Tae-ho, Seo Beom-su, Ahn Byung-gil, Ahn Cheol-soo, Eom Tae-young, Yoon Sang-hyun, Yoon Young-seok, and Lee In-seon, and it is the first bill introduced domestically to realize SMR technology.

Representative Choi stated the reason for the proposal: "SMRs are being recognized by major countries worldwide as a carbon-neutral alternative, and they emit no carbon dioxide. Experts analyze that since the main equipment is contained within a single nuclear pressure vessel in an integrated structure without separate connecting pipes, the risk of radioactive leakage is about one-thousandth that of large nuclear power plants."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea has stated, "We must comprehensively consider that it goes against climate response, is controversial, raises safety concerns such as the discharge of spent nuclear fuel, and has lower economic feasibility compared to large nuclear power plants," and announced its intention to actively reduce the SMR budget during next year’s government budget review process.

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