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 )

Text Fw: South Korea’s Global Nuclear Ambitions

*Source (same as the below link): Tamsin Carlisle, ‘South Korean companies strike it rich in UAE’, The National (Abu Dhabi), March 2, 2010

Japan Focus

South Korea’s Global Nuclear Ambitions
David Adam Stott

Introduction

“We had been building nuclear power stations for 30 years but had failed in repeated attempts to break into international markets.”

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a January 2010 radio address. [1]

December 2009 was an historic month for the South Korean nuclear industry. In winning two bidding competitions to design and construct nuclear power plants in the Middle East, it dramatically signalled its arrival as an international force in the sector. The opening announcement concerned Jordan’s first nuclear research reactor whilst the second, and most important, was a massive contract to build at least four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The South Korean team was one of nine original bidders and beat off competition from France and an American-Japanese consortium from the final shortlist of three. As the USA, France and Japan account for almost half of the world’s total nuclear reactors, this was an impressive achievement, especially since it will be the first nuclear power plant that Korea has exported.

The initial deal with the UAE to construct the reactors is worth around US$20 billion to KEPCO (Korean Electric Power Company) and its partners, whilst Seoul estimates that Korean firms will reap a further harvest of US$20 billion over the 60-year lifespan of the reactors by way of maintenance, servicing and fuel supply contracts. With a total value estimated at around $40 billion, this was the largest contract awarded in the Gulf last year, and the biggest single contract that South Korean firms have ever secured overseas. Indeed,, aside from military hardware, it is likely also the biggest contract ever signed in the Gulf region. Moreover, both sides view the landmark contract as a stepping stone to a much deeper economic relationship in which both countries pour greater foreign investment into the other. Indeed, Abu Dhabi has recently endowed South Korean firms with numerous large contracts to upgrade its petrochemical infrastructure.

* For more reading and maps/ images, click HERE

Text Fwd: Landmark nuclear power plant deal sounds energy alarm within South Korea

* Image source/ caption: Same as the link below

'South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, seated, claps his hands together when Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) President and CEO Kim Ssang Su, left, and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) President Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak, right, shake hands after signing a contract in Abu Dhabi Dec. 27.'

Hankyoreh
Landmark nuclear power plant deal sounds energy alarm within South Korea:As KEPCO consortia secures APR contract in UAE, environmentalists say nuclear power plant export is little cause for celebration in S.Korea
Dec. 28, 2009

South Korea has picked up project rights for a 40 billion dollar (47 trillion Won) nuclear power plant project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) announced Sunday (local time) that a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) was selected as the final contractor for the project. The KEPCO consoritium beat out France’s AREVA and a U.S. consortia led by General Electric Co. and the Japanese firm Hitachi Ltd.

The UAE project is the largest-scale overseas project order ever picked up by South Korea. The selection is further significant in that it marks the first exportation of South Korea’s independently developed nuclear power plant model APR. Environmental groups, meanwhile, continue to question the safety and utility of nuclear power plants.

Project Details and Selection Factors

The KEPCO consortium will begin work on the power plant next year in Sila, a city located 330 kilometers west of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. There will be four 1,400 MW-capacity plants at the location generating a total of 5,600 MW of power. Analysts say out of the 40 billion dollars, an estimated 20 billion dollars will go into design, construction and early operating expenses, while the remaining 20 billion dollars will go towards after service expenses for a period of 60 years after construction is completed for items such as plant fuel, operating costs, maintenance and waste treatment.

The primary factor in the selection of the South Korean nuclear power plant model, which has never been exported before, was its cost competitiveness. According to data from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the APR’s construction unit cost of 2,300 dollars per kilowatt (kW) was lower than those of its competitors AREVA at 2,900 dollars per kW, and GE at 3,583 dollars per kW. In terms of electricity generation unit cost, the South Korean model’s 3.03 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) was lower than AREVA’s 3.93 cents kWh, and less than half Hitachi’s 6.86 cents kWh.

Criticism from Environment Groups

Questions about its utility and safety make nuclear power a controversial energy source throughout the world. The chief concern has to do with fatal damages that could result from radiation leakage in the event of an accident. For this reason, environment groups have maintained that nuclear power cannot be a fundamental alternative for combating climate change and that the construction of nuclear power plants should be minimized.

These arguments factor into the dark shadow lurking behind all the praise about the export of South Korea’s first nuclear power plant model. Environmental activists are noting that the dazzling copy about the largest power plant export in South Korea’s history masks continued concerns about environmental safety. In particular, they are pointing out that while the Lee administration is heralding a “nuclear power Renaissance” and talking up nuclear power as a green energy resource, safety concerns and other issues remain topics of debate within the international community. Indeed, nuclear power, unlike other renewal energy sources like wind and solar power, is not included in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an instrument for greenhouse gas reductions included under article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. Although countries like France and Japan place a high emphasis on nuclear power and have been arguing for its inclusion, no conclusion was reached on the matter at the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen.

Environmental activists are also claiming that the benefits of nuclear power plant construction as a future industry are questionable, since global demand for nuclear power plant construction is not very large and Korea still has not secured original technology. “There is a demand for new plants mainly in countries where civil society is not active, like China and countries in the Middle East, but there is no explosive demand at the worldwide level,” said Energy Justice Actions head Lee Heon-seok. “Also, because we still do not have the original technology, nuclear power plants lack future prospects in industry terms,” Lee noted.

Yanglee Won-young, head of Korean Federation for Environmental Movement’s committee on climate and energy, says,　“Nuclear power may conceivably be a necessary temporary substitute for fossil fuels, but a better alternative would be to promote energy efficiency or develop renewable energy sources.” Yanglee added, “It is undesirable for South Korea to go all in on nuclear power.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]　


* Related article

Yonhap news
2009/12/28 10:07 KST
S. Korea eyes nuclear plant deal from Turkey: officials


* Related blog

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/12/text-fwd-s-korea-becomes-worlds-6th.html
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Text Fwd: S. Korea becomes world's 6th nuclear reactor exporting nation