When a ruling party lawmaker proposed a special law to support the development of next-generation small modular reactors (SMR), environmental groups strongly opposed it.
On the 13th, the Environmental Movement Federation urged the withdrawal of the proposed special law, saying, “SMR is not innovation but a delusion of the nuclear power industry.” The day before, Huang Jeong-a, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Daejeon Yuseong), announced that she had introduced the 'Special Act on the Promotion and Support of SMR Technology Development.'
SMR is a small nuclear power plant made using an integrated module system. Its power generation capacity is within 300 megawatts, which is one-third the size of large nuclear power plants. Major advanced nuclear power countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have already begun legal and institutional support for the development and demonstration projects of SMR.
The bill proposed by Huang aims to establish a legal foundation to promote SMR technology development and enhance private sector participation. If the SMR special law passes, the government can secure grounds for financial and administrative support to strengthen private corporations’ SMR development capabilities, as well as securing demonstration sites and supporting the use of research infrastructure.
Huang stated, “Amid the waves of change, such as the AI competition, climate crisis responses, and industrial restructuring, SMR is a next-generation energy source that can simultaneously achieve safety and innovation,” and emphasized, “The bill must pass quickly so that we can lead the global SMR competition based on our country’s world-class nuclear power technology.”
However, the Environmental Movement Federation pointed out that SMR has not been technically demonstrated and that issues such as long construction periods and budget overruns have arisen in various overseas cases. They cited the example of a Canadian SMR project, where approximately 21 trillion won is expected to be spent on constructing four 300 megawatt-class reactors, and completion is estimated to take 15 years.
The Environmental Movement Federation argued, “At a pace that does not help address the climate crisis, it falls short of the surging electricity demand that Huang is concerned about,” and stated, “Although the small size of SMR is said to reduce accident risks, radioactive leakage threatens citizens' health and lives, regardless of size.”