drastically reduced, although the details differ from majority support to majority disapproval depending on the survey. President Moon reversed his government's nuclear phaseout policy just before the election in February 2022. In the 2022 election candidate Yoon Seok-Yeol promised to cancel the phase out if elected and continue running all plants as long as they safely could be develop new technology and become a global export powerhouse. Yoon went on to win a very close election in what was seen as a big win for the nuclear sector. Pros and cons of nuclear power The nuclear debate The nuclear power debate is about the controversy which has surrounded the deployment and use of nuclear fission reactors to generate electricity from nuclear fuel for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, when it "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies", in some countries. Proponents of nuclear energy argue that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source which reduces carbon emissions and can increase energy security if its use supplants a dependence on imported fuels. Proponents cite scientific studies affirming the consensus that nuclear power produces virtually no air pollution, in contrast to the chief dispatchable alternative of fossil fuel. Proponents also believe that nuclear power is the only viable course to achieve energy independence for most Western countries. They emphasise that the risks of storing spent fuel are small and can be further reduced by using the latest technology in newer reactors, fuel recycling, and long-lived radioisotope burn-up. For instance, spent nuclear fuel in the United States could extend nuclear power generation by hundreds of years because more than 90% of spent fuel can be reprocessed. The operational safety record in the Western world is excellent when compared to the other major kinds of power plants. Over 10,000 hospitals worldwide use radioisotopes in medicine, and about 90% of the procedures are for diagnosis. The radioisotope most commonly used in diagnosis is technetium-99. Some 40 million procedures per year, accounting for about 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures and 85% of diagnostic scans in nuclear medicine worldwide. The main radioisotopes such as Tc-99m cannot effectively be produced without reactors. Most smoke detectors use americium-241, meaning every American home uses these common radioisotopes to ensure the safety of their loved ones. Opponents say that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment.