사진 확대 Prime Minister Seong Sook Han (right) shakes hands with Gates Foundation Chairman Bill Gates at the Seoul Government Complex on the 14th. Yonhap News Agency
Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, co-founder of Microsoft and founder of Terra Power, a next-generation nuclear power company, met with major political and business figures in Korea to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in small module reactor (SMR) projects. It has been a year since he visited Korea in August last year.
According to the business community on the 14th, Chairman Gates and TerraPower CEO Chris LeBeck met with HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Ki-sun and Hyundai Engineering & Construction CEO Lee Han-woo somewhere in Seoul. This is the first time that top executives of each company have gathered since HD Hyundai, TerraPower, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction signed a “three-way business agreement for cooperation in the next-generation sodium reactor business” in May. They discussed cooperation measures to commercialize land reactors here.
Chairman Chung said, “Based on a cooperative system that encompasses technology, manufacturing, and EPC (design, procurement, and construction), we will be able to speed up commercialization of next-generation reactors,” adding, “We will actively respond to the increase in demand for SMR power generation through our own technology development and collaboration with global companies.”
HD Hyundai has been specifying the scope of supply chain cooperation and plans to speed up its investment in production facilities with the aim of supplying two to three reactor containers annually in the future.
SK Innovation signed an agreement with TerraPower to cooperate with the sodium SMR business and advance into the global market for next-generation SMR. As a result, SK Innovation will expand opportunities to participate in SMR demonstration projects that TerraPower is building in the United States and subsequent commercial projects. It will also cooperate to expand the use of domestic SMR supply chains, develop domestic sodium SMR business, and jointly discover SMR global projects.
SK Innovation and TerraPower plan to comprehensively review regulations, industries, and power system conditions in relation to the global business and gradually specify the direction of ‘K-Sodium’, a Korean-style sodium SMR business model.
Chairman Gates met with SK Chairman Chey Tae-won on the same day. They are said to have discussed the development of next-generation nuclear power plants. SK Co., Ltd. and SK Innovation are the second-largest shareholders who invested $250 million in TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates in August 2022.
Doosan Efficiency announced on the same day that it has signed a contract with TerraPower to produce core equipment for sodium reactors. Specifically, the reactor protection container of the TerraPower sodium reactor, the reactor support structure, and the reactor internal structure are manufactured.
Gates also met with Prime Minister Seong Sook Han later in the day for talks. They discussed solutions to power supply in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and ways to cooperate with Korea and the U.S. in next-generation SMR through closed-door talks at the Seoul Government Complex. Prior to the meeting with Prime Minister Han, he met privately with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik for about 35 minutes at the National Assembly Speaker’s office in Yeouido, Seoul, to discuss ways to cooperate with artificial intelligence (AI) and health.
“If Chairman Gates’ experience and wisdom are added to the capabilities of the Republic of Korea, the pace of solving common human problems will be accelerated,” Chairman Cho said, emphasizing the fact that the Korean National Assembly has enacted and implemented the world’s second basic AI law and excellent bio-infrastructure.
[Reporter Lee Jin Han / Reporter Ryu Young Wook]