[Anchor]

Three major mega-projects, including new semiconductor investments and artificial intelligence data centers, have reshaped the long-term electricity demand map. Because the scale is large enough to require building 19 additional large-scale nuclear reactors to manage it, discussions on constructing new nuclear power plants appear inevitable.

Reporter Jang Seon-i reports.

[Reporter]

This is the construction site for an AI data center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The total floor area of the five combined buildings is equivalent to 21 football fields.

Demand for data centers is surging amid the AI boom.

[Bae Jang-ho / LG Uplus Enterprise AI Business Group: Building 1, scheduled for completion in June next year, has already been sold out. We plan to additionally construct Buildings 2 and 3 by 2028.]

The problem is electricity.

The power secured by this data center currently under construction is 200 megawatts.

This is the amount that 590,000 households would use in a year when operating at maximum capacity.

The General Committee for the 12th Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity Supply and Demand, a private advisory body, announced a forecast that peak electricity demand will reach 158 to 165 gigawatts by 2040.

This raised the projection by about 27 gigawatts in just four months, newly reflecting the power demand of the "three mega-projects," namely semiconductors, data centers, and physical AI.

Twenty-seven gigawatts is the power generation capacity of 19 large domestic nuclear reactors.

[Choi Yong-ok / Professor of Economics, Chung-Ang University & Member of the 12th Electricity Plan Demand Planning Committee: Most of this is explained by reflecting the large-scale investment plans for semiconductors and AI data centers that materialized after late June.]

Previously, adopting the 11th electricity supply and demand plan prepared by the preceding administration, the government decided to newly build two large nuclear reactors and one small modular reactor, or SMR.

Regarding the three mega-projects, the government stated it would advance the timing of nuclear plant construction, but with the electricity demand forecast drastically raised, voices calling for additional nuclear power plant construction are expected to grow louder.

[Yoo Seung-hoon / Professor of Future Energy Convergence, Seoul National University of Science and Technology: Relying solely on renewable energy is undesirable, and I believe we must include new nuclear plants and create a diverse energy mix to stably supply 27 gigawatts of electricity.]

The government's policy is to finalize the electricity supply plan within this year.

(Video filming: Kim Hak-mo, Video editing: Lee Hong-myung, VJ: Shin So-young)