Korea looking to accelerate nuclear power exports

Korea is on a quest to find new markets for its nuclear power plant exports as more countries, including the Netherlands, Canada and the Czech Republic, are looking to secure energy security with nuclear energy.

Four cooling towers are running at the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. [AP]

Korea is on a quest to find new markets for its nuclear power plant exports as more countries, including the Netherlands, Canada and the Czech Republic, are looking to secure energy security with nuclear energy.

The Netherlands plans to build two new nuclear power plants by 2035 and hopes the additions will fuel its drive to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.

Three potential suppliers, including Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), Westinghouse Electric and France’s EDF, are reportedly in talks with the Dutch government to build the facilities.

“Requests for a feasibility study will be made to the parties next month,” a nuclear plant industry source said.

The Netherlands currently runs one nuclear power plant in the southwestern village of Borssele, which came online in 1973 and accounts for three percent of the country’s total electricity generation.

Korea seeks to emerge as a nuclear plant export as countries turn toward nuclear energy to meet rising electricity demand.

Small modular reactors (SMRs), dubbed next-generation nuclear plants, are increasing their presence in the nuclear energy market with a size one-hundredths of that of conventional nuclear plants and at a relatively cheaper cost.

Canada is building a new SMR for the first time in three decades in Clarington, Ontario, scheduled for completion in 2028 and grid connection in 2029. Canada announced in July that three more SMRs will be built on the site by the mid-2030s. The quartet will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity or enough to power 1.2 million homes.

“Canada is a good market for Korea because it has a well-established SMR licensing system,” said Moon Joo-hyun, an energy engineering professor at Dankook University.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute is currently discussing SMR exports with Canadian authorities, Moon added.

In June, Samsung C&T inked a memorandum of understanding with Romania’s state-run Nuclearelctrica, U.S. SMR developer NuScale and three other companies to build a 462-megawatt SMR in the Eastern European country.

Romania's Cernavoda plant, where Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power will build a tritium removal facility [NUCLEARELECTRICA]

New overseas markets for nuclear facilities offer Korean companies a chance to expand their business. The former Moon Jae-in administration’s nuclear phase-out policy rattled the industry but Korea is still one of the few countries sufficiently experienced in operating nuclear plants.

Korea is ranked sixth in the world in terms of the number of operable nuclear power reactors, after the United States, France, China, Russia and Japan, according to Statista.

It secured a 195-million-euro ($212 million) deal in Romania to build a tritium removal facility in June, Korea’s biggest-ever single nuclear facility deal.

KHNP signed a letter of intent for the 1.4-gigawatt Patnow project with Polish counterparts last year to build two nuclear plants using homemade APR1400 reactor technology.

KHNP is also competing with Westinghouse and EDF to win the 1.2-gigawatt Dukovany project in the Czech Republic.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) signed a letter of intent with Polish counterparts in October 2022 to build two nuclear power plants at the Patnow thermal power plant site. [KHNP]

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration pledged to export 10 nuclear plants by 2030 and export nuclear facilities worth 5 trillion won ($3.73 billion) by 2027.

The Yoon government plans to spend 200 billion won on small and medium nuclear energy companies to expedite the progress and is designing a customized export insurance policy for these businesses.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will dispatch 11 commercial attachés starting in August 2023 to promote nuclear plant exports in potential markets such as Egypt, the Netherlands, India, Indonesia and Qatar.

Nevertheless, Korea is yet to overcome technological and diplomatic challenges.

Further SMR research and development is required for Korea to land a high-value-added SMR reactor export, while the ongoing dispute with Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse over intellectual property also needs to be settled.

“The Westinghouse lawsuit has been dragging for a long time and there’s no guarantee of winning the battle,” Moon from Dankook University said, suggesting an agreement to enter foreign markets jointly as a possible means of settlement.

BY JEONG JONG-HOON, SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]