The government struck an agreement with a southeastern coastal county Friday to build a new nuclear power plant there, the Prime Minister's Office said.

Uljin County, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is currently home to an existing nuclear power plant with six reactors. The government had been negotiating for the past 15 years with the county to build an additional plant there.

Under the deal, the government plans to provide 280 billion won (US$252.3 million) worth of infrastructure and other welfare programs to the county, where four more nuclear reactors will be added by 2022.

The deal calls for the county to cooperate with the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co.'s project to build the four reactors in return for the compensation package composed of nearly

200 billion won worth of infrastructure assistance and over 80 billion won worth of education and medical facility building. 

"The deal is meaningful since it has been reached after prolonged negotiations," Prime Minister Chung Hong-won said. "It will serve as a new landmark for resolving energy and regional problems together."

South Korea currently operates 23 nuclear reactors at four nuclear power plants, which generate 26 percent of its total power supply.

The government plans to build up to 10 new nuclear reactors, in addition to the five already under construction, by 2035 to boost the share of nuclear power to 29 percent.

But the nuclear reactor plan has been met with some public opposition because of safety risks involving nuclear facilities, especially after the tragic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan in 2011.

Last month, the majority of citizens in Samcheok, a city picked for the government's new nuclear power plant project, voted down the government plan in a referendum, citing safety risks.

The government said it will not accept the result of the referendum, putting it and the small eastern coastal city, just above Uljin, on a collision course. (Yonhap)