KHNP to Set Up Enriched Uranium Supply Chain with US

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) will seek to stabilize the supply chain of uranium, a key fuel for nuclear power plants (NPPs), with the United States. In particular, it will build a supply chain for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) which holds the key to the commercialization of small modular reactors (SMRs), which are considered a next-generation nuclear power plant model.

KEPCO announced on April 27 that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Centrus, a U.S. nuclear power company, for the stable supply of nuclear fuel at the Korea-U.S. Advanced Industry Clean Energy Partnership in Washington, D.C. in the United States on April 25 (local time).

Uranium, a fuel for nuclear power plants, comes from more than 50 countries in the world including Australia and Canada. More than 20 of them are exporting uranium so its supply and price are stable. But the supply of enriched uranium for actual nuclear power plants is extremely limited. This is because there are only a few countries and companies that can produce it including Russia-based Tenex, the United Kingdom-based Eurenco, France-based Orano, China-based China National Nuclear Corporation, and the United States-based Centrus. In particular, Russia, which is said to account for about 40 percent of the world’s enriched uranium supply, is facing growing concerns as its relations with the West and South Korea have been strained by its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. KHNP also signed a memorandum of understanding with French enriched uranium producer Orano on April 25.

By sourcing enriched uranium from Centrus, KHNP plans to diversify its suppliers and contribute to strengthening nuclear cooperation between South Korea and the United States. In particular, Centrus is currently the only company, along with Russia’s Tenex, that can produce HALEU for next-generation SMRs, making it a long-term strategic collaboration with KHNP promoting the deployment of SMRs. KHNP is planning to create a standard model of Innovative SMR (i-SMR), a Korean-type SMR, in 2028 in cooperation with the Korean government and enter the overseas market after completing licensing, so it is vital to secure HALEU.

Natural uranium contains 0.7 percent U235, which is easily fissionable. But to use it as fuel in a nuclear power plant, it must be enriched to 2 to 5 percent. For SMRs, where efficiency is particularly important, the percent of fissionable material needs to go up to 20. France’s Orano is also developing this technology but it is reportedly years away from completion.

“This is an important achievement in strengthening our nuclear fuel supply chain cooperation with allies amid geopolitical instability and a global supply chain crisis,” said a KHNP official, “It also raises the possibility of pre-empting fuels needed for future SMRs.”

On the same day, KHNP, along with SK and SK Innovation, signed an MOU with US SMR developer TerraPower to review strategic cooperation in sodium fast reactors (SFRs), which are considered to be a next-generation SMR commercialization technology.