외교부

 Since then, Korea has built 20 nuclear power plants (capacity: 17,720,000kW, approximately 40% of total power supply) and has grown into the world’s 6th largest nuclear country in terms of NPP capacity.

 ※ The number of major countries’ nuclear power plant : USA(103), France(59), Japan(54), Russia(30), Germany(18), Korea(20)

 Korea which lacks natural resources has indeed benefited from the stable supply of energy and the economic efficiency of nuclear power plants.

 ※ Since 1982, consumer prices have increased by 170 %, while electric bills have increased by 6.6%.

2. In contrast to developed countries such as the US and Europe who have constructed only few additional nuclear power plants since the1980s, Korea has constructed 11 additional nuclear power plants since the 1990s. Thus, Korea has the best human resources and has well equipped nuclear power plants with excellent technical infrastructure.

 ※ Currently, 6 NPPs are under construction. We are planning to build 2 more NPPs.    (In total, 8 more nuclear power plants are scheduled to be constructed by 2017).

 Korea’s nuclear power plants rank among the world’s best in terms of quality. The plants have high capacity factors and the lowest unplanned shutdown rates, proving its excellent operation system.

 ※ Nuclear Plant Capacity Factor (%, ’06):Korea (92.5), U.S.A (89.8), France (77.3), Canada (70.9), Japan (69.7)
 ※ Unplanned Shutdown Rate per Unit (’04): Korea (0.6), U.S.A (1.3), France (3.0), Canada (1.3), Japan (0.3)

 In particular, the Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant (OPR-1000) is a successful model of technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries. Also, the plant has state-of-the-art technology and records high economic efficiency among verified reactor models.

 ※ OPR-1000 (Optimized Power Reactor): The Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant which was developed in 1992 is an improved version of CE (Combustion Engineering) Corporation’s Pressurized-Water Reactor (PWR).