Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Sung-wook ordered his officials to speed up the operation of the first two units at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's Shin Hanul nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. His instruction is a sudden flip-flop, because he was strongly committed to phasing out nuclear power plants until just two months ago.
In his New Year's press conference in mid-January, Moon reaffirmed that there will be no change in the Moon Jae-in administration's nuclear phase-out policy. His remarks came hours after Yoon Suk-yeol, who was then the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), said he will scrap the phase-out policy if elected and seek to expand nuclear power generation. During the parliamentary inspection of the energy ministry last October, Moon also rejected a PPP lawmaker's argument that nuclear power should increase, saying, “Electricity from nuclear power is not recognized in domestic and international markets.”
Moon's earlier position on nuclear energy, however, contradicts international trends, considering that the European Commission included nuclear energy in its taxonomy, a classification system establishing a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. This means that nuclear energy is green and reminds us of how irrational the Moon administration's nuclear phase-out policy has been.
The minister is not alone in making a flip-flop when it comes to nuclear energy. In a total about-face from his obsession with nuclear phase-out over the past five years, President Moon called nuclear power a main source of electricity over the next 60 years in late February, with only a couple of months remaining before the end of his term.
The Moon government seems to be backtracking on its nuclear phase-out drive following the election of the conservative candidate Yoon as the next president earlier this month. But such a change came too late as the country's nuclear power generation ecosystem has been pulled to pieces during his presidency. Given our natural environment unfavorable to renewable energy, the next administration should establish a national energy policy that can revitalize nuclear power generation and implement its development aggressively.