S. Korea to Work More Closely with France in Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning

South Korean Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Paik Un-gyu and French Minister of Environment Nicolas Hulot signed a letter of intent and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Paris on November 28 (local time). The purpose of the former is cooperation between France and South Korea in the energy resource sector and that of the latter is inter-organizational cooperation in the field of nuclear power plant decommissioning.
 
The two sides agreed to establish a committee for cooperation in new and renewable energy, smart grid, energy efficiency, nuclear power plant decommissioning, etc. The first meeting of the committee is scheduled for next year.

In addition, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, which is about to decommission the first unit of the Kori Nuclear Power Plant, concluded MOUs with Areva and Électricité de France for information exchange and technical cooperation.

The South Korean minister also met with French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire to discuss bilateral trade and investment expansion in the field of new industrial technology representing Industry 4.0. The French minister made a request for South Korean companies’ more investment in France, mentioning the case of Naver and some other South Korean companies increasing their investment in France these days.

Earlier, the fourth Korea-France Joint Forum for Innovative Industry took place in Paris late this month, hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. There, the two countries agreed to work together on six fields of technology, including energy, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and information and communications technology (ICT) convergence.