Seoul wants to export reactors and develop an indigenous SMR design
South Korea will provide more than $100m (€96m) worth of financial support this year to businesses in the nuclear power plant industry to encourage development of the sector, the industry ministry said on 10 February.
The fund will be used to support the local nuclear power plant industry with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of South Korean companies, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. The move comes amid growing demands for electricity sparked by a boom in the AI sector and calls for carbon neutrality.
The ministry said it has increased this year’s budget by about $35m from 2024 to respond to increasing demand for investment in the sector on the back of nuclear power plant exports in recent years and the move to build new power plants in South Korea.
Companies selected for support can receive loans of up to about $7.5m at a low interest rate of 1-2%. The funding will be provided through eight commercial banks.
Following his election 2022 president Yoon Suk Yeol* reversed previous president Moon Jae-in’s policy of phasing out nuclear power. In July 2022, Yoon said he wanted to restore the country’s nuclear power plant ecosystem and backed plans by ministers to resume work on Shin-Hanul-3 and Shin-Hanul-4. Work on those two units was halted by Moon’s administration.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), the state-run developer, owner and operator of nuclear plants, first sought construction approval for the two Shin-Hanul units in 2016.
New Policy Aims To Maintain Nuclear Share
Former president Moon’s policy had been to retire the country’s 26 commercial reactors, which supply about 30% of its electricity generation, and to stop the building of new ones.
In July 2022, the South Korean government laid out a new energy policy which aims to maintain nuclear’s share of the country's energy mix at a minimum of 30% by 2030. It also set the goal of exporting 10 nuclear power plants by 2030, as well as the development of a South Korean small modular reactor design.
Yoon has been bullish on the need for South Korea to embrace nuclear energy. He has said building nuclear power plants is a global trend and essential to the reduction of carbon and energy security.
In April 2024, the Shin-Hanul-2 nuclear plant began commercial operation, marking a major political turnaround in energy policy. South Korea also has two plants under construction at the Saeul nuclear station in the southeast of the country.
In July 2024, KHNP won a lucrative public tender to build at least two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic with the first unit scheduled to be online by 2036. South Korea also supplied four of its APR1400 nuclear plants for the Barakah nuclear project in the United Arab Emirates.
* Yoon has been impeached and his powers are currently suspended.
