[단독] The government’s five-year nuclear phase-out budget surged by 223%… The nuclear power plant construction and repair budget is ‘dropped’

Kori Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1.2 [매경DB]

The government budget (contribution), which the former Moon Jae-in administration spent on research and development (R&D) for ‘dismantling nuclear power plants’ as part of its nuclear phase-out policy, has increased by 223% over the past five years. On the other hand, the budget spent on nuclear power plant construction and maintenance R&D decreased significantly. Even from 2020, for the first time in history, the budget for the dismantling of nuclear power plants exceeds the budget for the construction and maintenance of nuclear power plants.

According to data submitted by Lee In-seon, a member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Small and Medium Venture Businesses on the 21st, from the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (Egi-pyeong), the government support for R&D projects related to the construction and maintenance of nuclear power plants, which amounted to 68 cases in 2017, was Last year, the number dropped to 32.

Accordingly, the government’s contribution to R&D projects for nuclear power plant construction and maintenance, which amounted to regarding 52.6 billion won in 2017, also decreased by regarding 33% to 35.5 billion won last year.

Nuclear R&D tasks and budget [자료 출처 = 이인선 국민의힘 의원]

On the other hand, the amount of support for nuclear power plant decommissioning projects more than doubled from 20 in 2017 to 47 last year. During the same period, government contributions jumped 223% from 13.5 billion won to 43.6 billion won.

In particular, in 2020, the reverse phenomenon occurred for the first time in history, in which the support details and budget for the nuclear power plant decommissioning task exceeded the support and budget for the nuclear power plant construction and maintenance task, continuing for two consecutive years until last year.

The biggest reason for this reversal is that the ‘nuclear core technology development project’ was canceled in 2019. At that time, the National Science and Technology Council extended the sunset deadline until 2021 only for the ‘nuclear environment and decommissioning industry’.

In contrast, the sunset deadline was not extended for projects necessary to develop the nuclear power plant industry, such as ‘safety and advancement of nuclear power plants’, ‘performance improvement of nuclear power plants’, and ‘technological innovation of nuclear power plants’.

According to an official from Egi-pyung, however, from 2023, the ‘innovative small module reactor (SMR) development project’ with a total budget of 126.7 billion won is added as a new task for six years, and the related budget is expected to increase once more.

Rep. Lee In-sun said, “It can only be seen as an attempt to thoroughly destroy the nuclear power plant ecosystem during the Moon Jae-in regime.”

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