Nuclear energy's inclusion in green taxonomy draws backlash

Cho Hyun-soo, head of the Ministry of Environment's Green Transition Policy Division, announces the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's green taxonomy draft, which includes nuclear energy, at Government Complex Sejong, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Lee Hae-rin

• Published Sep 21, 2022 3:32 PM KST
• Updated Sep 22, 2022 9:37 AM KST

By Lee Hae-rin

The Ministry of Environment's plan to include nuclear energy in the country's list of environmentally sustainable economic activities is facing a backlash from environmentalists who accuse the government of having fallen behind international standards.

The environment ministry unveiled a draft of the new green taxonomy, Tuesday, which includes nuclear energy.

Green taxonomy is a government classification that lists environmentally sustainable economic activities. It serves as an important selection standard for green investments. For example, businesses that run activities listed in the green taxonomy are eligible for low-interest loans.

The ministry said the draft is based on the European Union's taxonomy as well as opinions of the various parties involved in the country, including scholars, civic groups, industrial circles and relevant government bodies.

The draft reverses the ministry's earlier announcement under the previous Moon Jae-in administration in December last year, which excluded nuclear energy from the green taxonomy. The ministry said at the time it would “make a final decision based on international trends and domestic conditions."

However, the government's new draft is facing criticism for failing to meet international standards, including the EU taxonomy.

One of the key points of controversy is the timeline to use Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF) in nuclear reactors.

ATF is a set of new technologies that could prevent nuclear disasters by minimizing or delaying the release of radioactive waste from a damaged nuclear reactor. According to the draft, all newly built nuclear reactors must use ATF, while reactors that are already in operation should introduce them from 2031. The country's timeline is six years behind that of the EU, which targets the introduction of ATF by 2025.

However, the plan could be totally ineffective, because the regulation will not apply to two reactors ― Shin Hanul reactors 3 and 4 ― that will be newly built and others whose operational lives will be extended by 2031, according to the statement released on Tuesday by Energy Transition Forum, a domestic coalition of environmental civic groups, corporations and experts. These domestic reactors will be “classified under the country's green taxonomy without following regulations on using ATF for the coming nine years,” the group said.

Another point of criticism is the government's plans for storing and dispose of high-level radioactive waste.

The ministry said the high-level radioactive waste management plan in the draft will be enacted and serve as a legal basis to store and dispose of nuclear waste.

However, the ministry's management plan lacks important details in establishing high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, according to the group. The draft simply says the ministry will “set a permanent disposal facility within 37 years after selecting a site,” without mentioning any specific timeline or candidate sites.

Unlike Korea's plan, the E.U. taxonomy proposes a set of specific plans to select sites, and build and manage highly-radioactive disposal facilities before 2050, said the environmentalist group. According to the management plan in the draft, the final establishment of a disposal facility will be after 2060, which is 10 years later than that of the E.U., even under a hopeful yet unlikely scenario that a construction site will be selected as early as next year.

Meanwhile, the ministry plans to map out a final draft after collecting more opinions at a public hearing, which will take place on Oct. 6. The taxonomy's inclusion of nuclear energy, however, will remain unchanged, the ministry said.