Hyundai Engineering joins eco-friendly SMR project in Canada

South Korea¡¯s Hyundai Engineering has entered into a multi-party agreement to join a small modular reactor (SMR) construction project in Alberta, Canada, allowing it to break into the burgeoning market for the affordable and safer reactors for carbon commitments.

Hyundai Engineering on Thursday said a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the partnership was virtually signed with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the Provincial Government of Gyeongbuk, Handong Global University, the Alberta Government of Canada, the University of Calgary, and CKBC.

Organizations participating in the agreement, including Hyundai Engineering, plan to build a 100MWe-class small reactor in the Canadian province, using the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) technology from Korean and Canadian institutions, while promoting cooperation in technology development in power generation and hydrogen production from process heat.

SFR is a reactor that uses liquid sodium as a coolant. The thermal energy produced in the nuclear fission reaction with high-energy neutrons is transferred to a sodium coolant to generate steam, which then drives turbines to produce electricity.

The KAERI, which began to develop SFR, the 4th-gen nuclear power plant, under a state project since the 1990s, completed a basic design of the main system of PGSFR (Prototype Generation-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor) with a power output of 150Mwe. It plans to develop a 100Mwe-class long-cycle SFR for shipment to Canada.

SFR, which uses high-purity, low-enriched uranium metal fuel to produce higher power density than LWR, enables long-term operation and relatively low production of waste nuclear fuel.

Alberta has been making efforts to develop SMR technology to reduce CO2 generated from fossil fuel power plants, which account for most of its energy mix.

Through the MOU, Hyundai Engineering will perform the EPC service for the SFR construction project in Alberta.

The participating organizations will open a joint office in Canada as soon as possible for technology, human resource exchange and business cooperation. Handong Global University and the University of Calgary will promote mutual exchanges in human resource development and R&D.

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