Eco-friendly economic activity: S.Korea revises green taxonomy guideline to include nuke energy

 

 - 

South Korea on Tuesday announced the revised version of its national green taxonomy, called K-Taxonomy, to include nuclear energy.

The country established the K-Taxonomy guideline last year to provide principles and standards on environmentally sustainable economic activities, according to the Ministry of Environment.

The ministry revised the guideline to include nuclear energy in the green economic activities that are composed of the green and the transition sectors.

The green sector refers to the truly green economic activities essential for carbon neutrality, including research and development on nuclear energy such as small modular reactor (SMR) and accident-tolerant fuel (ATF).

The transition sector refers to activities temporarily included in the green taxonomy as an intermediary step toward carbon neutrality, including the construction of new nuclear power plants.

The inclusion of nuclear activities will be dependent on specific conditions and requirements, such as legislation on the ATF use and the safe storage and treatment of high-level radioactive waste, the ministry said.

The government of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, planned to raise the ratio of its nuclear power generation to over 30 percent of the total power generation by 2030 from 27.4 percent in 2021.

It was the reversal of the previous government's policy to gradually reduce dependence on nuclear power. [Sept. 20 , @Xinhua]