Yoon Byung-tae, Mayor of Naju, "We Will Attract the 'Artificial Sun Research Facility'"

Meeting with Oh Young-guk, Director of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, to Request Cooperation
Expressing Willingness to Promote Ordinance Enactment and Explaining Locational Advantages

Mayor Yoon Byung-tae of Naju recently visited Oh Young-guk, Director of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, expressed his determination to attract the artificial sun research facility, and requested cooperation. Photo by Naju City

Yoon Byung-tae, the mayor of Naju City in Jeollanam-do, visited the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (hereinafter referred to as the Fusion Energy Institute) to express his determination to attract an artificial sun research facility.

According to Naju City on the 15th, Mayor Yoon recently met with Oh Young-guk, the director of the Fusion Energy Institute, and explained the efforts made so far to attract the 'artificial sun research facility,' the locational advantages, and the current status of industry-academia-research infrastructure.

The artificial sun is an infinite clean energy production device that can obtain large-scale fusion energy without emitting greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) by using hydrogen from seawater as raw material. It is expected to be a dream energy source that simultaneously realizes the replacement of depleting fossil fuels and carbon neutrality, as 1g of hydrogen can produce the energy equivalent to 8 tons of oil. Its advantage is safety from explosion or accident risks, as operation stops immediately when fuel supply is cut off.

The 'artificial sun research facility' that Naju City is focusing on is not a power plant concept but a facility to research the artificial sun necessary for full-scale commercialization (power generation) in the future, accumulate data, and demonstrate it.

The city, in cooperation with Jeollanam-do and the Korea University of Energy and Technology, has been pioneering and promoting the 'superconducting conductor test facility construction project,' one of the eight core technologies of the artificial sun, since 2022, becoming the first local government nationwide to do so.

In May of this year, the city established the 'Naju City Hydrogen Fusion Energy Research and Industrial Promotion Ordinance,' laying the foundation for building the artificial sun research facility. In June, it held the '2024 Maeil Business Newspaper-Kentec Forum' on the theme of artificial sun, and signed a memorandum of understanding among Jeollanam-do, Naju City, and the Korea Accelerator and Plasma Research Association to attract national large-scale research facilities.

In August, an advisory group composed of top experts on the artificial sun was launched, working on fostering artificial sun-related companies and developing policies, making multifaceted efforts to attract the artificial sun research facility.

At the meeting with Oh Young-guk, Mayor Yoon said, “Naju is the optimal site for the artificial sun research facility as it is promoting the creation of a 1.2 million square meter Energy National Industrial Complex and a 400,000 square meter industry-academia-research energy cluster, and has excellent industry-academia-research infrastructure such as KEPCO and Korea University of Energy and Technology.”

He added, “Through the establishment of the artificial sun research facility, I ask for the active interest and cooperation of the Fusion Energy Institute so that Naju, the energy capital of Korea, can leap forward as a global energy industry hub.”