Why did President Moon bring up the 'use of nuclear power for 60 years' again?

President Moon said, "We will fully utilize the nuclear power plants for the next 60 years."

On the morning of the 25th, President Moon Jae-in held a private review meeting on global energy supply chain issues at the Blue House.

It was a place to check the stable power supply base in a situation where there are concerns about a disruption in energy supply due to the Ukraine crisis.

Natural gas used for domestic electricity production is dependent on imports, but as war broke out in Russia, where a quarter of the world's natural gas is estimated to be stored, and Ukraine, where the largest pipeline transporting it to Europe is installed, domestic supply and demand Because disruption is expected.

However, in the press release distributed by the Blue House on the afternoon of the same day, President Moon's remarks about nuclear power were mainly introduced.

The relevant excerpts from the press release are as follows:

source, in Korea, the density of nuclear power plants is the highest in the world

. He

emphasized, "The energy transition policy of the government is to promote the cessation of construction of new nuclear power plants and the ban on extending the lifespan of old nuclear power plants that have reached the end of their lifespan, etc.,

"

President Moon said, "For the next

should be fully utilized as the main base power

."

Meanwhile, President Moon said, "The construction of Shin-Hanul Units 1 and 2 and Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6 was delayed due to earthquakes in Pohang and Gyeongju, voids, and the application of domestic independent technology. As it has been done sufficiently,

please check it so that it can be

When this remark was made public, opposition parties and some media outlets made comments and wrote headlines to the effect that the Moon administration had overturned the existing nuclear power plant policy.

<Crying out nuclear power "Nuclear is the main focus"...

At President Wen, who changed his words, he was "stupid"> <Admitting the error of nuclear denuclearization until the end of his term> <Ukraine's energy crisis...

It is a sentence that broke the nuclear phase out> and so on.

Moon administration's nuclear power policy really 'broken'

It is necessary to examine why President Moon suddenly made such a remark now.

But before that, I think we need to first determine whether the Moon administration really 'broken' the existing nuclear power policy and whether the criticism is accurate.

First of all, it is not true that a new policy was introduced to operate nuclear power plants for another 60 years after trying to phase out nuclear power plants right away.

The period of 2084 has already been reported in the article since the beginning of his tenure.

In a word, the Moon administration's nuclear power plant policy is to 'not build more nuclear power plants', so when the design life of Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6, the last to be built, ends in 2084, it will be the 'age of zero nuclear power plants'.

For this reason, this pledge has been heavily criticized not only by those in favor of nuclear power, but also by those who oppose it.

Environmental groups have argued that the nuclear eradication period of the Moon Jae-in government should be accelerated, saying, "The nuclear disarmament policy of the Moon Jae-in government is in fact nothing other than a 'natural death' policy for nuclear power plants."

There was also an argument that the former policy was abandoned with the slogan "Nuclear power plants are the main base power source".

However, this claim is difficult to see as a balanced criticism because it hides the prerequisite that nuclear power plants will be used as long as they exist until 2084.

'Base power' is a term that means 'a power plant that operates all the time because of its low production cost', so it is not a word given a value like 'main facilities'.

The government is planning to inject more alternative fuels such as nuclear power plants and coal power plants if natural gas supply is disrupted due to the Ukraine crisis.

As of 2020, the proportion of domestic electricity production is 35.3% from coal, 28.8% from nuclear power, 27.1% from LNG, and 6.0% from renewable sources.

It cannot be argued that the government's policy has been 'shifted toward coal power generation' just because it plans to increase the proportion of coal power generation depending on the situation.

President Moon said, "Despite the advantages of nuclear power as an energy source, Korea's nuclear power plant density is the highest in the world, and since it is concentrated in a specific area, it is difficult to deal with the damage in case of an accident, so a change in the energy mix is ​​inevitable." It has also repeatedly stated that it intends to maintain

Nothing has changed, but I emphasize again...

why?

To sum up, I'm repeating what I've been saying once more.

Therefore, it is not true to criticize that 'President Moon overturned the existing nuclear power policy at the end of his term'.

My interest is to 'why did you say the same story now?'

In particular, this meeting was originally a private internal reporting meeting, so the schedule was not shared with reporters and there was no need to issue a press release.

A Blue House official said, "The government has a view that it has shut down all nuclear power plants, so I explained it more accurately."

The president needed to explain the misunderstanding caused by the name 'post-nuclear'.

There are also rumors that President Moon was greatly frustrated by the government's inability to properly explain the criticism of the nuclear power plant policy.

Although he did not mention a specific political camp, there are also rumors that there must have been a lot of injustice in criticizing the government's nuclear power policy for the planned electricity tax increase, even if it was not a war.

There is also an analysis that the president himself must have stepped in because the ministries in charge had no choice but to feel burdened by the experience of the 'nuclear power plant investigation'.

But it's not just about nuclear power.

President Moon has recently been actively expressing his views on criticism of the government.

It is in the same vein that on the 10th, he demanded an apology with strong anger for the so-called 'corruption investigation' remarks by Yoon Seok-yeol, a presidential candidate for the Power of the People, on the 10th.

We are also active in promoting our achievements.

On the 22nd, he released a press release to check the achievements of the five-year summit diplomacy, and on the 24th he went to Gunsan and attended the signing ceremony for the reopening of the Gunsan shipyard. He even announced that he had lost.

Media interviews with the Blue House aides have also become more frequent.

Even in the election phase, if there is injustice, we can explain it, and if there are achievements, we can promote it.

It would not be the purpose of the election law to unconditionally remain silent except for the presidential candidates.

Therefore, it is difficult to criticize the President's recent remarks as inappropriate.

However, as the election draws nearer, the president's frequent remarks may rather lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and backlash.

Excessive promotion of performance is also poisonous.

In order to receive sympathy, we need to talk about achievements (過) together with gong (功) and return the balls to the people.

It's not because of lack of achievements, it's because if you raise yourself up, the world will lower you, and if you lower yourself, the world will lift you up.

It is unfortunate that the last New Year's press conference was not held due to the spread of Corona and the postponement of the election schedule to the beginning of the year.