(LEAD) Yoon pledges to revive nuclear power industry

All News 11:35 December 14, 2022

(ATTN: UPDATES with Yoon's congratulatory message; CHANGES headline)

SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol promised Wednesday to revive the nuclear power industry and turn it into a key export sector.

Yoon made the remark in a congratulatory message read by Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang at the opening ceremony for the Shin Hanul No. 1 nuclear reactor in Uljin, 223 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

"Our nuclear power industry, which declined under the nuclear phase-out policy, will be revived and leap again," he said, referring to a key policy of the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

"The government will turn the nuclear power industry into a pillar that leads our exports, and actively provide support so that the Republic of Korea can once again boast its status as a global nuclear energy power," he added.

Scrapping the nuclear phase-out policy was one of Yoon's campaign pledges.

In his remarks, he said the government plans to more than double its support next year for the nuclear power industry in terms of jobs, research and development and financing from this year's level of around 1 trillion won (US$770 million).

Yoon had been scheduled to attend the ceremony but canceled due to extreme weather conditions.

"The local government is working in emergency mode due to the cold wave," the presidential office said in a notice to the press.

Commercial operations at the Shin Hanul No. 1 nuclear reactor, which took 10 years to build and was completed in 2020, began last week.