Nuclear Power Plant Service Life Extension Expected to be Expanded – BusinessKorea

The Presidential Transition Committee said on April 20 that it would change the deadline of application for extended nuclear power plant operation to up to 10 years before service life expiration so that service life extension can be requested for up to 18 instead of 10 nuclear power plants under the new government.

This means most of the nuclear power plants currently in operation in South Korea can be given an extended service life. Companies in the nuclear power industry are welcoming the news and overseas nuclear power plant construction projects are expected to be boosted according to some industry sources.

Some of the others, however, point out that a complete recovery of the industry is still far away. Annual exports from the sector amounted to US$126 million in 2016 but dropped to US$33.7 million in 2020, one of them said, adding, The figure stood at US$21.4 million in 2019 and this is because of the Moon Jae-in administrations obsession with nuclear power phase-out.

The annual sales of the industry decreased from 27.45 trillion won to 22.2 trillion won from 2016 to 2020, when the sales of equipment manufacturers fell from 2.14 trillion won to 1.7 trillion won and those of nuclear power plant builders dropped from 1.61 trillion won to 0.74 trillion won. According to many experts, any restoration of the broken industrial ecosystem is likely to take at least three to four years.

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Nuclear Power Plant Service Life Extension Expected to be Expanded - BusinessKorea