Where Will the Power for Factories Come From? Minister Kim Seong-hwan Suggests Considering New Nuclear Plants

[Anchor]

Following the construction of semiconductor factories in the southwestern region, a 392 trillion won investment blueprint for the Chungcheong region was announced today (July 2) in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and others plan to build new facilities, including storage memory plants, semiconductor back-end processing factories, and AI data centers. While large-scale investments centered on high-tech industries are being pushed across the country, the significant expected increase in power demand means that power supply plans will need to be redrawn.

The Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment stated that the construction of new nuclear power plants could be considered. Reporter Park Jaehyeon examines the feasibility of this plan.

[Reporter]

The construction site for the SK Hynix semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Four factories are scheduled to operate on a site equivalent to the size of 580 soccer fields.

Samsung Electronics is also planning to build six semiconductor factories on nearby land.

The power required to operate all 10 semiconductor factories is 15GW, a level that would require 10 nuclear power plants to support.

Yongin City had initially planned to supply power sequentially as the factories were completed, but setbacks have become inevitable.

This is because the three major mega-projects announced that the completion dates would be moved up by 7 years for Samsung Electronics and 12 years for SK Hynix.

When adding the 6.3GW required for the four semiconductor factories to be built in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province, 18.4GW for AI data centers nationwide, and the semiconductor back-end processing plants in the Chungcheong region announced today, at least an additional 25GW is needed.

Consequently, the possibility of building additional nuclear power plants has been raised.

[Kim Seong-hwan / Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment (Today, SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show): If there is a need to build more (semiconductor factories) on the scale of the Yongin cluster, then we will have to consider it. With the premise of managing it safely despite some risks, we could use nuclear power as a kind of base-load power source...]

The government has decided to revise the 12th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, for which power demand and supply forecasts had already been completed, and it is highly likely that the construction of additional nuclear power plants will be included.

[Heo Jin / Chairman of the Demand Planning Subcommittee for the 12th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand (The day before yesterday, National Assembly Climate Change Forum): Because there was a major announcement, the plan is scheduled to be significantly revised and supplemented.]

Nuclear power plants require more than 10 years from site selection to completion.

The government plans to first increase the output of LNG power plants, which are currently operating at about 50% capacity, and pursue the expansion of renewable energy such as solar power, along with the introduction of energy storage systems and the construction of additional pumped-storage power plants.

[Yoo Seung-hoon / Professor of Future Energy Convergence at Seoul National University of Science and Technology: Relying only on renewable energy is not enough, and relying only on nuclear power is not enough. An 'energy mix' strategy that utilizes all possible power sources is an important task...]

With the urgent need to expand large-scale power plants and transmission networks, resolving conflicts with local regions and residents remains another challenge to be addressed.

Reported by Park Jaehyeon | Video by Kim Jong-mi | Graphics by Jeon Yu-geun | Footage courtesy of the National Assembly Climate Change Forum
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.