Asia may be swamping the world with its cheap exports, but the region as a whole offers a huge market for nuclear reactors and technology, driven by the fast-expanding, fuel-deficient economies of India and China, according to a recent article in Taipei Times.
In fact, Asia's older economic dragons, such as South Korea and Japan, are already major nuclear energy users, and the anticipated expansion of the industry on the continent is part of a world-wide upsurge of interest in nuclear power.
South Korea, 40 percent dependent on nuclear power, has been pushing the development of the industry over the last three decades in a bid to cope with the country's vulnerability to international oil and natural gas markets.
Since its first reactor opened commercially in 1978, South Korea now runs 20 nuclear reactors nationwide, generating 40 percent of the country's electricity.
But recent plans could turn South Korea's nuclear industry into one of the top five in the world, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology and its third comprehensive nuclear energy development plan for next year through 2011.
In fact, Asia's older economic dragons, such as South Korea and Japan, are already major nuclear energy users, and the anticipated expansion of the industry on the continent is part of a world-wide upsurge of interest in nuclear power.
South Korea, 40 percent dependent on nuclear power, has been pushing the development of the industry over the last three decades in a bid to cope with the country's vulnerability to international oil and natural gas markets.
Since its first reactor opened commercially in 1978, South Korea now runs 20 nuclear reactors nationwide, generating 40 percent of the country's electricity.
But recent plans could turn South Korea's nuclear industry into one of the top five in the world, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology and its third comprehensive nuclear energy development plan for next year through 2011.
