S. Korean, U.S. companies cooperate in small modular reactor sector

Businesses in South Korea and the U.S. have forged a partnership on a large scale in building next-generation reactors. At the ROK-U.S. high-tech industry and clean energy partnership event held in Washington on Wednesday, Doosan Enerbility announced that it signed an MOU with NuScale Power and the Export-Import Bank of Korea to expand small modular reactor business, agreeing to cooperate in technology development, fund solicitation, manufacturing, and supply chain operations.

Small modular reactors are next-generation reactors with a tenth the size of conventional reactors. They offer a simple and compact design and are cheaper and safer than conventional ones. Being the first company to receive U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) design approval, NuScale Power is known to be a forerunner in commercializing small modular reactors. The partnership with NuScale is expected to open wide opportunities for Korean nuclear power companies when the global SMR market is expanded.

SK Inc., SK Innovation Co., and the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. signed a partnership agreement with TerraPower, a U.S. developer of small nuclear reactors, where they agreed on cooperation for developing and commercializing the next-generation nuclear reactor technology. Having jointly invested 250 million dollars in Terra Power in August 2022, SK Inc. and SK Innovation will cooperate with Terra Power in its verification of Natrium, a fourth-generation nuclear energy technology based on the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), and the development of commercial models.

Under an agreement between Hyundai Construction and Holtec International, Team Holtec, will work together to rebuild Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by deploying small modular reactors. Team Holtec plans to achieve grid connection for the SMR-160 pilot project by March 2029. They will devise a plan to construct up to 20 small modular reactors in Ukraine and build a Ukrainian manufacturing facility to localize the production of equipment required for SMR-160 construction.


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