South Korea to scrap building new nuclear power plants

South Korean President Moon Jae-in attends a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, June 8, 2017.  (Yonhap via AP)

South Korea, one of the world’s largest nuclear electricity producers, will scrap plans to build new nuclear power plants.

President Moon Jae-in said Monday that South Korea will move away from the nuclear energy and will not seek to extend the life of existing nuclear plants.

Moon’s speech was made at a ceremony marking the shutdown of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant, Kori 1, nearly 40 years after it went online.

Last year a third of electricity in South Korea was produced from nuclear power plants. Its nuclear electricity production was the fifth-largest in the world, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Moon promised to cut coal and nuclear power during his presidential campaigns. He also pledged to shut old coal power plants and stop building new coal plants./rga