Chairman & CEO Kim Ho-sung of Korea Nuclear Energy Agency(KNEA).

A seminar of the Nuclear Power Energy Future Forum gets under way at Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul on Dec. 1.

Chairman & CEO Kim Ho-sung of Korea Nuclear Energy Agency (KNEA) stressed the importance of public trust and support for nuclear power. Kim made the remarks while attending a seminar of the Nuclear Power Energy Future Forum at Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul on Dec. 1. 

Explaining the background of the establishment of the Nuclear Power Energy Future Forum, KNEA Chairman Kim said, “Korea will be obliged to cut 2030 greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent from business-as-usual (BAU) levels if the COP21 pact of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), now being discussed at Paris, is to go into force.” He went on to say, “It is inevitable to maintain more than a given portion of nuclear power mix to achieve the reduction target, and public truest and support are badly needed toward policies on nuclear power riddled with controversies.”

The COP21 refers to the 21st in the series of the Conference of Parties (CEP) of the Framework Convention, which came into force in 1994. The latest meeting is in Paris.

“Trust toward nuclear power, which nosedived after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, is slowly recovering. The lesson we’ve learned from this is that information should be revealed in a transparent fashion, and reliable experts will have to make preparations for establishing future energy plans through in-depth discussions and research,” he said. 

KNEA inaugurated the forum, a voluntary civic discussion body, last July 23. The forum is modeled after the Club of Rome, a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues.  Currently, a total of 17 experts are sitting on the four subdivisions of the forum — climate change; electricity mix; nuclear power safety; and unification and power collaboration. The gathering of experts from diverse areas ranging from nuclear power to economy, climate change, geology, communications, new and renewable energy, electricity, and unification sectors, are now in a wide range of discussions and are expected to make many new suggestions rich with convergence ideas. 

Explaining the discussions each subdivision has done, Chairman Kim said the Climate Change Subdivision predicted that the COP21 will mark a watershed in response to climate change. It also dealt with such issues as the electricity industry’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the general public’s awareness toward the dangers of climate change, nuclear power, which now serves as an alternative to fossil fuels, and shared growth with new and renewable energies. Experts sitting on the subdivision shared the need for taking into account such energy policy tasks as climate change responses, a shift into sustainable economic structure, and creation of good quality jobs in a bigger picture. 

Experts sitting on the Nuclear Power Safety Subdivision discussed ways of improving safety, a prerequisite of using nuclear power, causes of public misgivings and solutions. Some members noted the strengthening of restrictions on nuclear power and the enhancing of awareness of safety, and priority to scientific and technological judgment to find solutions to the spent nuclear fuel issues as well as the provision of objective information and fair communications. 

The Power Generation Mix Subdivision put forward such dramatically innovative mindset suggestions as the calculation of social costs according to power generation sources to secure sustainable energy sources, and the sharing of a public discussion process for establishing nuclear power construction plans. In particular, it concurred on a consensus on the need for ensuring shared growth among new and renewable energy sources, nuclear power, and LNG. 

The Unification & Power Collaboration Subdivision is designed to make preparations for the unification of the two Koreas. The subdivision proposed the private sector’s power collaboration, which is hoped to spur unification, under the catchphrase “Lights to North Korean Residents.” Experts sitting on the committee confirmed hefty considerations, including the leadership issue related to the implementation of inter-Korean power collaboration projects and economics. 

KNEA Chairman Kim Ho-sung and members of the Nuclear Power Energy Future Forum pose together while attending a seminar of the forum on Dec. 1.

KAIF Marks 5th Nuclear Safety & Promotion Day

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future and Planning hosted the Nuclear Power Forum in celebration of the 5th anniversary of Nuclear Safety & Promotion Day at Lotte Hotel on Dec. 22.

The forum was organized by Korea Nuclear Energy Agency (KNEA) and the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum (KAIF) under the theme “Nuclear Power, Energy in an Era of the Post-2020 Regime.” The event was designed to explore nuclear power’s roles to cope with the Post-2020 climate change regime. 

On Dec. 16, at COP 21 in Paris, governments of the world under the UN agreed on the Post-2020 regime on climate change by adopting the Paris Agreement, the first universal climate change deal, which will spur a transformation of global growth and development and open the door to a low-carbon, stable, sustainable future. 

Nine experts spoke at two sessions of the forum on management of the whole cycle of nuclear power units for a sustainable development of the atomic industry and sharing nuclear power’s roles on the Post-2020 Climate Change Regime following the COP21 Conference.

On Dec. 23, Director General Chung Dong-hee, who is in charge of nuclear power policy at the MOTIE, presided over a meeting with industry leaders in which he announced the so-called Nu-Tech 2030, a long-term plan calling for raising Korea to global “top three” nuclear powerhouse with the goal of securing a 20 percent share in the global nuclear power market. 

Prof. Chung Bum-jin of Kyunghee University spoke on cooperation among industries, academics and research circles for the construction and operation of nuclear power units, while Senior Vice Chairman Hwang Joo-ho of the Korea Nuclear Society touched on ways of managing spent nuclear fuel. Vice President Kim Hak-no of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute gave a presentation on the topic “strategies to implement the development of futuristic nuclear power systems.” J. Shang of TUV-SUV introduced a German case of decontamination and decommission of nuclear power units. 

Later in the day, roughly 300 people in the Korean nuclear power industry assembled to celebrate the 5th Nuclear Safety & Promotion Day. 

Nuclear Safety & Promotion Day falls on Dec. 27 in celebration of Korea’s exporting nuclear power technologies to the United Arab Emirates on Dec. 27, 2009. The 5th anniversary ceremony was advanced to Dec. 23. During the ceremony, the government presented awards to those who have contributed to the development of the Korean nuclear industry.