NUCLEAR-ENERGY SYSTEM FOR THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL-REGULATION IN KOREA - ENERGY-ECONOMY INTERACTION-MODEL ANALYSIS

Global environmental regulation such as limits on CO2 emissions will c hange the energy cost as well as energy mix, and it will eventually af fect the potential economic growth and future energy demand. The rise of energy price from the environmental regulation will encourage the e fficiency increase of energy use, fuel switching and the substitution between the energy and the other factors of production like labour and capital. Such situations can be successfully simulated through an ene rgy-economy model which permits two-way interaction between energy and economy. An analysis on the role of nuclear energy system for meeting the global environmental constraint like CO2 emission regulation, has been performed through an energy-economy interaction model EFOM-MACRO -KOREA. In case carbon taxation which is a widely discussed policy mea sure for CO2 abatement should be introduced, the role of nuclear energ y in the domestic sustainable energy system as well as the economic im pacts has been assessed. For the analysis, various scenarios in tax ra te have been considered. Levying carbon tax will decrease future econo mic growth, and the decrease will be bigger in case that there are som e restrictions on nuclear installation. It is shown that nuclear energ y system will play an important role in Korean sustainable development up to 2040 in most cases. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.