As towns shrink, municipalities compete to host new nuclear plants

A banner reading, “Population decline, falling income. Nuclear power is the only answer!” hangs in a village in Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province, April 3, 2025. Korea Times photo by Kim Jung-hye

As Korea’s rural towns empty out, an unexpected competition is emerging among struggling local governments vying to host new nuclear power plants. Once seen as dangerous and unwanted, nuclear facilities are now viewed as a last-ditch way to stem population decline and revive local economies.

On Friday, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a subsidiary of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., posted a notice inviting applications for new nuclear sites. It is inviting bids to host two large nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of 2.8 gigawatts and a 0.7‑gigawatt small modular reactor (SMR). Municipalities that wish to participate are required to submit an application, including a consent resolution from their local councils, by March 30.

The announcement follows the Lee Jae Myung administration’s decision to move ahead with additional nuclear construction to support the age of artificial intelligence (AI), which relies on energy‑hungry data centers and other power‑intensive infrastructure.

In Ulsan’s Ulju County, some residents began campaigning even before the KHNP notice went up, with Seosaeng area residents galvanizing support. Seosaeng is home to Saeul Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 and 2, which are in operation, and Units 3 and 4, which are under construction.

“Our county satisfies most of the key requirements for selecting a new nuclear power plant site, including geological stability, adequate cooling water, connection to transmission lines, accessibility and operational safety,” the group said at a press conference on Jan. 29. “Public acceptance is also an important factor, and Seosaeng is a community that has lived with nuclear power for a long time, giving its residents the maturity to calmly evaluate both the risks and the benefits.”

Ulju County Council Chair Choi Gil‑young also voiced support.

“I’d say there is almost no overall opposition,” Choi told The Korea Times on Monday. “Our residents are the ones who truly, firsthand, understand how safe nuclear power is.”

Yeongdeok, a county in North Gyeongsang Province, is also evaluating a nuclear bid. Local officials plan to conduct surveys next week to ask its residents whether they want to host a plant. If the results show overwhelming support, officials say they will move quickly into full‑scale campaigning, including town hall briefings and banners promoting the bid.

Yeongdeok was designated in 2011 as the planned site of a new station, but the project was scrapped in 2017 under the Moon Jae‑in administration’s nuclear phase‑out policy, and it has since become a textbook example of a municipality on the brink of population extinction, with its population decreasing to roughly 33,000 today from more than 41,000.

“We’ll only know for sure after we run a new poll, but I think support for attracting the plant will be quite high,” a county official said.

That would mark a dramatic shift in local sentiment from a 2015 local poll, in which more than 91 percent of participating residents opposed the construction of a new nuclear power plant in their area.

Asked about the reasons behind the rising support, the official said the shift is driven mainly by anxiety over population decline and a worsening local economy. Many residents now feel their situation has become so difficult that they are more willing to host a new nuclear plant in their community, he added.

Women sit across the water from a nuclear power plant in Busan's Gijang County, Oct. 23, 2025. Newsis

If selected, host municipalities receive special grants and additional tax revenues that can be channeled into roads, infrastructure, welfare, schools and development projects. Residents benefit through scholarships, expanded welfare and medical services, as well as subsidies or discounts on local fees and utilities.

For example, Ulju was given 118 billion won ($80 million) in one‑off support funds, plus a commitment for an additional 10 billion won each year for 60 years, after agreeing to the construction of Saeul Units 3 and 4 in 2014. KHNP also allocated 150 billion won in “coexistence and cooperation” funds directly for residents.

For towns losing factories, schools and hospitals, such packages appear to be among the few remaining ways to finance long-term public investments.

Competition is also intensifying over the SMR project. Busan’s Gijang County and the city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, have both declared their intent to host the first unit.

On Jan. 29, Gijang officials announced that the county would formally launch its bid for the SMR. “SMRs are a high‑quality, stable power source that will drive future energy industries such as AI and data centers, and they are the most realistic option for responding to the climate crisis and achieving carbon neutrality,” County Mayor Jeong Jong‑bok said.

Gyeongju Mayor Joo Nak‑young has entered the fray with similar determination. In a recent newspaper op‑ed, he argued that, when considering both economic viability and technological synergy, his city is “the most realistic and best‑prepared candidate site.”

But not everyone is on board.

On Jan. 27, three civic groups held a press conference at Ulju County Office calling for a halt to the project. They said that the Seosaeng area and neighboring Gijang County are already heavily packed with reactors, warning that additional units would concentrate any damage from an accident in one region.