With South Korea, the United States, and Japan agreeing to jointly support the adoption of small modular reactors (SMRs) by countries in the Indo-Pacific region, expectations for new orders among South Korean nuclear energy companies are rising sharply. Analysts suggest that Doosan Enerbility\u2014which is emerging as a global linchpin not only in large-scale nuclear power but also in the SMR sector through bold preemptive investments\u2014along with SK Group, HD Hyundai, and major construction firms, will be the primary beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
According to industry sources on the 13th, Doosan Enerbility projects that its nuclear power order backlog will expand from 13.7 trillion won (approximately $9.2 billion) this year to 27.2 trillion won (approximately $18.2 billion) by 2030. The company has set major business targets for this year including 3.5 trillion won (approximately $2.3 billion) for large-scale nuclear reactors, 1.1 trillion won (approximately $736.8 million) for SMRs, and 300 billion won (approximately $200.9 million) for nuclear maintenance and repair services, aiming to surpass 1 trillion won in annual SMR orders for the first time.<\/p>\n
Behind this outlook lies the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) data center market. Analysis indicates that with large-scale data center operators demanding 99.999% uptime\u2014so-called “five nines” high-quality power\u2014SMRs are emerging as the only viable carbon-free power source capable of reliably meeting this requirement. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also estimates that SMRs will account for 24% of newly added nuclear power capacity worldwide by 2050.<\/p>\n
To respond to this growing global demand, Doosan Enerbility is pursuing the construction of a dedicated SMR production line at its Changwon plant in South Gyeongsang Province. The facility, for which an investment of 806.8 billion won (approximately $540.4 million) was decided last year, is having its operational timeline adjusted in line with the business progress of related companies. The company’s current annual SMR production capacity of 12 units is expected to increase by approximately 67% to over 20 units once the dedicated plant is completed.<\/p>\n
Collaboration with global energy companies is also accelerating. Doosan Enerbility is discussing SMR manufacturing contracts with NuScale Power\u2014which has signed a power purchase agreement with U.S. utility TVA\u2014in line with project progress. With X-energy, the company has completed core material reservation contracts for 16 modules and is negotiating the supply of long-lead items. Additionally, it has secured contracts with TerraPower for the manufacture of main equipment, including steam generators (GS) and reactor support structures (RSS), tightening its grip on the core equipment supply chain.<\/p>\n
SK Group is expanding its influence in the SMR market through equity investments. SK Inc. and SK Innovation jointly invested $250 million (approximately 370 billion won) in TerraPower in 2022, securing the position of second-largest shareholder. With TerraPower currently constructing “Kemmerer Unit 1″\u2014an SMR based on sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) technology\u2014in Kemmerer, Wyoming, SK plans to further expand business cooperation during the commercialization process. In particular, SK Innovation is pursuing the construction of South Korea’s first fourth-generation SMR using TerraPower’s SFR technology, targeting commercialization by 2035, and aims to use this as a springboard to enter the Asian market.<\/p>\n
HD Hyundai is also accelerating its SMR business by strengthening cooperation with TerraPower. Following HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering’s $30 million (approximately 45 billion won) investment in TerraPower in 2022, the company secured an order last year to manufacture the reactor vessel for Kemmerer Unit 1. In May, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries achieved a significant milestone by signing a basic agreement with TerraPower for the supply of sodium-cooled reactors and being selected as the preferred bidder for the manufacture and supply of core equipment.<\/p>\n
An HD Hyundai official stated, “We are also developing floating nuclear power plants\u2014sea-based power generation facilities\u2014and nuclear-propelled container ships applying SMR technology,” adding, “We will expand our business into the maritime nuclear sector, having already obtained Approval in Principle (AIP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) with the goal of commercialization by 2030.”<\/p>\n
South Korean construction companies with differentiated competitiveness in large-scale nuclear engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) are also actively competing to capture the SMR market. Hyundai Engineering & Construction is jointly developing the “SMR-300,” a 300MW-class SMR, with U.S. nuclear company Holtec International and pursuing commercialization. Samsung C&T’s construction division is targeting markets in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East in cooperation with U.S. nuclear firm GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH).<\/p>\n
This trilateral cooperation framework is expected to go beyond simple intergovernmental consultation, serving as a decisive opportunity to strengthen the position of South Korean companies in the global SMR supply chain. In particular, the likelihood is growing that Doosan Enerbility\u2014specialized in manufacturing nuclear reactor main equipment\u2014SK and HD Hyundai\u2014which have secured next-generation nuclear design capabilities\u2014and construction firms with execution capabilities will each leverage their respective strengths to capture new nuclear power projects in the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With South Korea, the United States, and Japan agreeing to jointly support the adoption of small modular reactors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[409,752,15637,8013,890,171,8584,240,27239,33,14727,444],"class_list":["post-84834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-doosan-enerbility","tag-hd-hyundai","tag-hyundai-engineering-construction","tag-indo-pacific","tag-japan","tag-korean","tag-samsung-ct","tag-sk-group","tag-small-modular-reactor-smr","tag-south-korea","tag-terrapower","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}