Steven Chu slams Korea's energy policy
Former U.S. Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu speaks during an academic conference at the KAIST in Daejeon, Thursday / Yonhap
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Former U.S. Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu questioned President Moon Jae-in’s no-nuclear policy Thursday, claiming it was not a viable solution.
“Nuclear is better than natural gas or coal,” Chu said during an academic forum hosted by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
“It’s the government’s job to educate the public and to weigh the pros and cons of health and the economy.”
The 69-year-old Stanford University professor claimed Germany implemented the similar “far-leftist” energy policy to do away with nuclear power, but it ended up hurting public health by still depending on coal-fired power plants.
The policy also burdened ordinary Germans with higher electricity bills while benefiting only industry, he added.
To exit from nuclear and coal power in phases, however, the Moon administration announced it will increase the nation’s energy dependence on LNG to 37 percent by 2030, from 18.8 percent now.
It also said it will increase the dependency on renewable energy sources to 20 percent in the period from the current 4.7 percent.
Chu said “LNG power isn’t green energy” since it also produces nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide as well.
Considering a stable electricity supply and its cost, Chu said the country shouldn’t depend heavily on a limited number of energy sources, but establish a wide range of them.
“Research in chemical energy storage through novel electrochemistry may lead to solutions, but for the next half century, we will need additional energy-on-demand, carbon-free sources of energy from proven technologies,” he said.
Chu also said Moon’s policy roadmap to decommission all existing nuclear reactors in Korea and shift towards renewable energy by 2060 was impossible to achieve.