South Korean companies are now building what will become the first operational NuScale Small Modular Reactor (SMR) as part of South Korea’s bid to become the world’s foremost constructor of SMRs. This follows the collapse of NuScale’s proposed project to build its first reactor in Utah, when the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems canceled the contract.
South Korea is no newcomer to nuclear power and builds its own reactors, the APR1400 model which forms the backbone of its fleet of 26 reactors, to soon increase to 30. It is in the process of fully completing a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates comprising 4 APR1400 reactors, three of which are already commercially operating, with the last to go online by the end of this year.
Apparently the Korean government had made the decision to take the lead in building SMRs no later than in 2023 and budgeted $49 billion for developing and deploying SMR in the 2024 budget the port city of Changwon, a center of heavy industry, as the manufacturing hub for SMRs.
Speaking at a New Year’s Town Hall meeting in Changwon in February, Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the government will develop Changwon and its surrounding South Gyeongsang Province into an SMR-manufacturing hub and unveiled a comprehensive policy package aimed at rebooting the country’s nuclear energy industry. Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Dukgeun said his ministry will introduce a special law for the nuclear power industry to ensure policy consistency, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Feb. 22.
