Mr. Paik Un-gyu, South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy declared his support to sell nuclear reactors overseas, based on the existing success of Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) in Barakha.
Kepco is building the first of four nuclear plants in the United Arab Emirates and the company is prospecting in South Africa, Turkey, and the UK.
However South Korea, has been looking to phase out from nuclear and to reduce its energy dependence on coal.
“The problem we’re facing is having multiple units in a small country such as Korea. We have a long-term roadmap for the next 60 years and our policy is phasing out nuclear power gradually,” he declared.
So what the Minister is really saying is : “we already have 24 reactors (22,5 GW), that produce one third of our electricity, but due to lack of public acceptance, we decided to phase out. Nevertheless…trust us, you can buy our technology, we just do not like it at home”. The Minister, and Kepco should pay attention to the business case of Kraftwerk Union (KWU) in Germany.
