Nuclear growth a boon for S Korea

Recurring South Korea production is helping South Korea to cut imports of thermal coal and LNG to multi-year lows so far in 2025, offering a potential blueprint for other power-hungry nations seeking to curb reliance on fossil fuel imports.

- Gavin Maguire is the Global Energy transition columnist at Reuters.

Nuclear reactors have generated more electricity than South Korea's coal and natural gas-fired plants since September of last year, and have helped the country's utilities make steep cuts to fossil fuel purchases and use so far in 2025.

Historically, South Korea has been a top-tier importer of both coal and LNG, but over the first quarter of 2025 it has combined imports of both fuels by 20% from 2024, thanks to greater home-grown nuclear output.

Continued high nuclear generation could allow for further drops to South Korea's fossil fuel imports going forward and showcase the effectiveness of a nuclear fleet in displacing costly and high-polluting fuels from power production.

NUCLEAR GROWTH

South Korea's nuclear power fleet churned out a record 17.9 terawatt hours of electricity in January, according to data from Ember, which is 35% more than in the same month in 2024 and accounted for nearly 33% of the country's electricity.