KNF Launches Construction of Its Second Zirconium Plant

    - The company is to invest 81.5 billion KRW in the plant to become operational in 2017

    - It is expected to stimu  late regional economic growth and create jobs for the talented locals 

▲ President Lee Jae-hee is giving opening remarks at the ground-breaking ceremony

  KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Company (President Lee Jae-hee) builds a new plant in Nosan city, Korea that makes zirconium alloy tubes for nuclear fuel. KNF celebrated the groundbreaking at Nosan general industrial complex II on May 22, attended by president & CEO of KNF, mayor of Nonsan city, and some 200 VIPs invited for the ceremony.     

  The company invests 81.5 billion KRW in this one-story Zirconium Alloy Tubes production plant with total gross floor area 9,197m², which will beequipped with cutting-edge facilities, to produce 600km of nuclear fuel cladding tubes per year. KNF expands its manufacturing capabilities for nuclear fuel tubes to accommodate an increase in construction of new domestic nuclear power plants as well as its project in the UAE. The construction will be completed in 2016, and the plant will be fitted with new equipment to be commissioned for commercial production in January 2017 after getting operating licenses and testing. They also have a plan to build another plant on the site that produces heat transfer tubes, a primary component used for nuclear steam generators. 

▲ Lee Jae-hee, president of KNF (the 7^th person from the left) and Hwang Myeong-seon, mayor of Nosan, and other guests are pressing the button to start the construction at the groundbreaking ceremony.  

   “We are very excited to build a new plant in Nosan for manufacturing zirconium alloy tubes, which take some 70 percent of material costs. Based on the safe operation of the facilities, KNF will try to become a beloved company by supporting regional economic growth and creating jobs for the talented locals,” said Lee Jae-hee, president and CEO of KEPCO NF. 

  Zirconium alloy tubes, the key component to nuclear fuel, are used to encase uranium pellets, and a single PWR fuel bundle requires around 230 to 260 tubes. KNF has the capability to fully meet domestic demand, since it successfully localized manufacturing techniques for production of cladding tubes at its TSA plant in 2008, which until then had been imported from overseas; this brought import substitution of 40 billion KRW a year and led to export of its products since 2011 to the USA, a pioneer of nuclear energy, as its quality and technology have been globally recognized.