It is very first time for Korea to export nuclear fuel software technology to the U.S., the world’s pioneering nuclear energy country. And now it offers the U.S. nuclear fuel technology for SMR (Small Modular Reactor) in development.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE, Minister Hong Seok-Woo) and KEPCO NF (President Kim Ki-Hak) co-announced on Jan. 19 that it has won a contract from NuScale Power, LCC to develop nuclear fuel for its SMR. Under terms of the agreement, KEPCO NF, by 2017, will perform the design, supports and consulting, as well as state licensing for 45,000kW SMR which has been developed by NuScale Power.
President Kim Ki-Hak said, “This is definitely a big contract, still it means a lot just as we succeeded in exporting nuclear energy software, not the hardware to the U.S., the country advanced in nuclear plants.” and “I am proud of being globally recognized the quality of Korean nuclear technology by breaking into the markets on our own”.
KEPCO NF showed that it was able to win the contract based on experience in UAE nuclear power plant project and development of nuclear fuel for SMART, a similar scale small reactor modular that is different from SMR in structure.
KEPCO NF, a group company of KEPCO and a MKE-affiliated company, designs and fabricates nuclear fuel and it is one and only manufacturer and supplier for 23 nuclear power plants in Korea. Besides, it will export its fuel to UAE nuclear power plants starting 2016. The company has been exporting fuel cladding tubes since 2011 to Westinghouse Electric, the U.S. nuclear energy company. The original fuel manufacturing equipment and primary parts such as cladding tube equipment, fuel service technology are also being offered to U.S., China, Brazil and other countries.
The government views that the agreement will provide Korea an opportunity to occupy SMR markets prior to the others. As for SMR, it is yet at trial but IAEA sees its market value up to U$350 billion (about 385 trillion KRW) and 1,000 more SMR will be deployed over the world by the year of 2050.
■ SMR (Small Modular Reactor): Small-scale nuclear reactor with an electricity output of less than 300 to 500 Mwe. It is safety design featured and highly cost effective. Its compact size helps air-cooling the reactor with no water in the event of an accident, which also makes possible to construct inland, not by the sea with about 2 year shorter construction period compared to current nuclear plants. Since it is manufactured and assembled at a plant with primary components inside the reactor vessel, SMR can generally be attached to other modules to provide increased power supplies if necessary with initial licensing only.
