UK Nuclear Power Plant Project
A countdown began for KEPCO’s landing Moorside Power Plant order from UK. The Korean and UK governments signed a memorandum on cooperation in order to remove obstacles that may arise in licensing and approval processes in the future if KEPCO acquires a 100% stake from NuGen to carry out the Moorside project. This means that it is up to KEPCO to decide whether or not to export nuclear power plants worth US$ 18 billion.
On November 28, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced that Korean minister Baek met and signed the memorandum on cooperation in the nuclear energy sector with Greg Clark, head of Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of the UK on November 27.
The gist of the memorandum is that the two governments will support KEPCO’s and KHNP’s participation in the UK's new nuclear power plant projects and cooperate in such projects. In order to win an order for the Moorside New Nuclear Power Plant project in the UK KEPCO is currently seeking to acquire a stake from NuGen, the operator of the Moorside project. The Moorside project is to build three 1.1GW nuclear power plants in the Cumbria region of the United Kingdom and will cost US$ 18 billion. Currently, Toshiba owns 100% equities in NuGen.
In reference to this, KEPCO drafted a financing plan to fund US$ 12.6 billion via a project financing (PF) method and US$ 5.4 billion by an equity participation method which will involve KEPCO, the UK government and financial investors among others and submitted it to the Korean government in a nuclear export strategy meeting in October.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) is also considering exporting nuclear power plants to the UK. Hitachi of Japan building four nuclear power plants (5.4GW) such as Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury B in the UK, requested KHNP to acquire a stake in Horizon New Clear Power, the operator of the project, from Hitachi in July.