Text Fwd: Korea to market small nuclear reactors

* As in the case of the export on the nuclear power plant to the UAE, South Korean military expansion in other countries may be expected.

Korea Times
Korea to market small nuclear reactors
Feb. 24, 2011
By Kim Tae-gyu

Korea has diversified its product portfolio to boost the sales of nuclear power facilities. Demand is rapidly rocketing thanks to the world’s concerted efforts to reduce its heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

Korea Nuclear Energy Promotion Agency (KONEPA) Chairman Rhee Jae-hwan said in a recent interview with The Korea Times that the nation is working on the development of small-sized commercial nuclear power generation systems.

“Local researchers have finished much work on small-sized SMART nuclear reactors and have applied for global approval, which will be reviewed next year,” said Rhee who took charge of the state-run KONEPA in late 2009.

“The SMART reactor is a new-concept product, which will cater to the requirements of a city with a population of between 100,000 and 200,000. Many have shown interest in the innovative products including Kazakhstan.”

Asia’s fourth-largest economy has basked in the international spotlight over the past couple of years after it signed an $18.6 billion agreement to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates by 2020.

They are mega-sized ones designed to generate a huge amount of electricity. In comparison, the SMART reactors are smaller-sized, tailor-made products with multiple functionalities.

Emerging countries tend to prefer small-sized facilities like the SMART reactor and demand is expected to be somewhere between 500 and 1,000 by 2050. This means that the overall market size will amount to $350 billion.

Many countries including Chile, Lithuania and Kazakhstan are seeking to embrace the mini-sized facilities and Korea is looking to preempt the lucrative market.

“With the help of its technical edge and experience, Korea will be able to carve out a substantial chunk of the markets for both the large- and small-sized nuclear reactors,” Rhee said.

Asked about the revision of the Atomic Energy Agreement between Korea and the United States, Rhee contended that the country has to be allowed to use nuclear fuel down the road.

“The capacity of Korea’s interim dumps for high-level radioactive waste will run out fast. It will hit full capacity in 2016 but we are struggling to build permanent waste sites,” he said.

“Knowing that it took almost two decades to set up the sites for low-level radioactive dumps, we will not be able to build ones for high-level waste by 2016. Hence, we have no other choice but to reuse the spent nuclear fuel. The worries on weaponization can also be blocked through safe pyroprocessing.”

Under a bilateral nuclear agreement signed in 1974, Seoul has not been able to reprocess any spent nuclear fuel. Since this is set to expire in early 2014, the Lee Myung-bak administration started talks on revising the deal.

One of the thorny issues is whether Korea will be allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. is against the idea, citing the possibility of enriching it for nuclear weapons.

In response, Korea countered that pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel will calm such concerns because the new technology can reprocess spent nuclear fuel only for power generation.

(voc200@koreatimes.co.kr )