Yoon vows to scrap nuclear phase-out policy

All News 15:30 February 21, 2022

SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Yonhap) -- Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday vowed to scrap the current Moon Jae-in government's nuclear phase-out policy, saying he will make South Korea a powerhouse in nuclear power generation.

"I will recover the ecosystem of nuclear power generation and advance safe nuclear technologies so that they can become a core engine to drive the country," Yoon of the People Power Party wrote on his Facebook page.

Yoon emphasized that it is a global trend to use nuclear power generation along with other energy sources to reduce carbon and lessen the dependence on foreign countries for energy, adding that even the European Union Taxonomy recently labeled nuclear power as green energy.

"French President (Emmanuel) Macron reversed his words of 'nuclear-phase out' five years ago and declared 'U-turn to nuclear power,'" Yoon said. "After nuclear phase-out, Italy lost its energy power and became a country that imports the most electricity in Europe."

The nuclear phase-out scheme set by Moon's government centers on slowly breaking away from nuclear energy by refraining from building additional plants while retiring old ones.

Yoon criticized that Moon's energy plan will not work.

"The government said it will reduce the portion of nuclear power to 7 percent by 2050 and will import electricity from China and Russia when there is a shortage," he said. "The government's plan is infeasible even if solar panels are installed on our entire soil."

Yoon also lamented that the country's leading nuclear power technologies are dying.

"The government should think about what is the best for our national interest, not about biased ideology," he said.