The launch of new coal-fired power plants has allowed Japan to offset the reduction in power output from nuclear reactors, which were shut down shortly after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. The process of restarting reactors, which began in 2015, has not yet been completed: by February 2024, a total of 12 reactors with a net capacity of 11 GW had resumed producing electricity on a regular basis, including the first and second power units of the Takahama NPP, which were restarted in 2023. Five more reactors had obtained permission to resume operation, and the remaining 10 were awaiting final regulatory approval. As a result, the share of NPPs in Japan’s energy mix was significantly lower in 2022 than in 2010, i.e., prior to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi (5.0% versus 25.3%), whereas the share of coal had grown from 27.4% to 33.7% (no later data are available).
The use of coal in the power industry is also increasing in South Korea, where 16.2 GW of coal-fired TPPs, more than a third of the existing capacity of coal-fired power plants (40.1 GW), were put into operation in the period from 2016 through 2023. Coal remains a key source of electricity for South Korea: in 2022, solid fuel accounted for 34.0% of the country’s power output, with NPPs and gas-fired power plants at 28.4% and 28.2%, respectively (while all others sources totaled 9.4%). A similar trend can be seen in Turkey, which launched 5.6 GW of coal-fired TPPs, a quarter of the total fleet of its coal-fired generating facilities (20.5 GW), in the period from 2016 through 2023. As in South Korea, the share of coal in Turkey’s energy mix (36.9% in 2023) exceeds the share of other sources, including gas (20.8%), fuel oil (0.3%), hydroelectric power plants (19.9%) and all other generators powered by renewable energy sources (22.1%).
However, nuclear will become a formidable competitor to coal in the power industries of the three countries in the coming years. In 2023, Japan’s Cabinet stated the need in a policy document to build new reactors to replace retired capacities. Meanwhile, South Korea is building the third and fourth power units of the Saeul NPP with a net capacity of 2.7 GW, and Turkey plans to build two large NPPs in Sinop and Thrace after launching the Akkuyu NPP, which will become the first nuclear power plant in the country’s history. Turkey is also going to consider the option of purchasing small nuclear reactors in the future, as Alparslan Bayraktar, the country’s Energy Minister, said at the ATOMEXPO 2024 forum.
