South Korea Plans to Increase Number of Nuclear Reactors to 36

South Korea seeks to diversify its energy sources, aiming to minimize greenhouse gas emissions; so far, Seoul has proposed to build two additional nuclear reactors over the next 15 years bringing the total number of reactors to 36.

"The seventh basic plan on power supply places priority on setting up a mixture of energy sources that can minimize greenhouse gas emissions by building two new nuclear reactors for a stable supply of power while withdrawing earlier plans for coal-generated power plants," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported as cited by Yonhap.

Indeed, the country's use of electricity is expected to rise by 2.2 percent over the next 15 years, reaching 656,883 gigawatt-hours in 2029.

The seventh basic plan is supposed to diminish the country's greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with Seoul's Post 2020 Climate Change Mitigation Commitments — a UN-proposed new international initiative.

Seoul's plan, however, has sparked public environmental concerns inflamed by the Fukushima tragedy of 2011 in Japan which resulted in severe radioactive contamination of the region. The catastrophe prompted South Korea to ban fishery imports from eight of Japan's prefectures.