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Under a long-term "basic plan for national energy," the country will build 11 new atomic reactors with a generating capacity of 1,400 megawatts each by 2030, which will make nuclear power the biggest source of electricity, with 41 percent.
Nuclear power accounted for 15.5 percent of the country's total power generation last year. The portion has recently increased to around 26 percent as several reactors returned from maintenance, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, formerly the Ministry of Commerce, Energy and Industry.
South Korea runs 20 commercial reactors in four nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of 1,776 megawatts, accounting for 25.3 percent of the country's total power generation capacity of 7,000 megawatts. Additional eight reactors are under construction and are scheduled to open in 2016.
"A total of 39 nuclear reactors in the country would sharply reduce the consumption of fossil fuels to generate electricity," a ministry official.
South Korea has heavily depended on oil and coal in power generation. Some 38 percent of the country's electricity comes from its 40 coal-fired power plants. The country gets 20 to 25 percent of its electricity from natural gas, and 4 to 6 percent from Bunker-C oil.
Only 2 percent of the electricity comes from reusable energy, like solar and wind power, while hydroelectric power provides only a small portion.
Crude oil accounts for 43.6 percent of the country’s energy consumption, which has forced the energy-poor country to move toward nuclear power and change its energy-consumption habits. The country aims to reduce its crude reliance rate to 33 percent by 2030.
South Korea, the world's fifth-largest oil importer and second-biggest gas buyer, is vulnerable to international price rises because it buys almost all of its energy and raw materials from overseas.
"Nuclear power is the best choice available given high crude oil prices," the ministry said, adding that the cost of generating nuclear power was just 3 won (US$1 equals 1,039 won) per kwh as of last June, much lower than 127 won for Bunker-C oil, 107 won of natural gas and 30 won for coal.
"Nuclear power should become the main source of power generation, considering global regulations on greenhouse gas emissions," the ministry official said.
South Korea is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming, but did not belong to the first group which has to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 level between 2008 and 2012.
But South Korea is certain to be pressured to join the scheme from 2013 because it was the tenth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world in 2004, when the country generated over 590 million tons of carbon dioxide, or 3.3 percent of the 17.9 billion tons of greenhouse gases that Kyoto Protocol countries released, according to the energy ministry.
South Korea aims to eliminate 1.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, a 3.2 percent reduction from 2005, to comply with global environment regulations.
To achieve the target, the country will also boost the percentage of wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cell and other clean resources to 11 percent of total power output by 2030, from around 2.2 percent at present.
Last month, South Korea announced plans to spend 194.4 billion won (nearly US$187 million) this year on developing solar and wind energy and hydrogen fuel cells, a decision driven by rising crude import costs.
The country is also stepping up international cooperation to boost the use of nuclear and renewable energy sources.
South Korea and China have agreed to launch ministerial-level atomic technology talks in the first half of 2009. The decision to hold the bilateral nuclear technology forum gathering in Seoul next year was reached at the ASEAN-plus-three energy ministers' meeting held in Bangkok earlier this month.
The country has agreed to host Asia's largest solar energy plant. German firm Conergy signed this week a 20-million-euro (US$29 million) deal to extend a solar energy plant in South Korea.
