Seven out of 10 Koreans believe ‘nuclear power is necessary’

According to a survey on the necessity of nuclear powerplant in Korea, 70% of the respondents believe the country needs nuclear energy. Four out of 10 respondents say the share of nuclear powerplant in energy sector needs to be improved. While the former Moon Jae-in administration pursued nuclear power phase-out policy, the level of voices supporting for more nuclear power generation has been on the rise every year.

The statistics from ‘2021 research on the brand image of Korean Hydro & Nuclear Power Company (KHNP),’ which KHNP provided to Han Moo-Kyung of the ruling People Power Party, show that 53.3 % of Korean people support nuclear powerplant, a 5.0 percentage point jump from last year. The level of nuclear powerplant support is calculated based on average value of opinions of ‘necessity of nuclear powerplant’ and ‘nuclear power generation needs to be increased’. A total of 1,500 adults from 17 cities and provinces across Korea are the samples for the survey.

Although the level of nuclear powerplant support was 39.3% year of former President Moon Jae-in administration’s inauguration, it has been growing since. The reason for such change is analyzed to be increasingly heightened importance of nuclear energy amid the current world-wide energy crisis on top of the stronger criticism toward Moon’s phase-out policy.

For the survey, 69.2% of the respondent said nuclear powerplant is “necessary,” 12.7% up from 2017 (56.5%). In addition, 37.3%, up by 15.2% from 2017 (22.1%) of the surveyed said, “The portion of nuclear powerplant in energy generation needs to be increased”.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com