SEOUL - SOUTH Korea on Sunday announced a massive investment plan to build more power plants, including 12 new nuclear reactors in the next four years, to meet growing energy demand.

It plans to spend 37 trillion won (S$41.3 billion) from 2009 through 2022 in constructing 12 commercial reactors and 19 thermoelectric power plants, the ministry of knowledge economy said in a statement.

The ministry said 12 new nuclear power plants - including eight under construction - will be completed by 2012.

Eleven of the thermoelectric power plants to be built by 2022 would be fuelled by liquefied natural gas, seven by coal and one by fuel oil, it said.

South Korea, which relies heavily on oil imports, has tried to reduce its dependence on crude, diversify energy sources and cut down on the emission of greenhouse gases amid increasing power demand at home.

The country now has 20 commercial nuclear reactors and 85 thermoelectric power plants fuelled by either coal, gas or oil.

Nuclear power plants meet 34 percent of the country's total electricity demand this year, and they will cover 48 percent by 2022, the ministry said. -- AFP