Design Certification from U.S. NRC
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) is pushing for U.S. design certification for the Korean-type nuclear reactor APR1400.
KHNP said on Feb. 7 that Han Sang-wook, head of the Technology Strategy Division at KHNP, visited the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 4 and 5 to discuss design certification for the APR1400 nuclear reactor.
Han met Margaret M. Doane, executive director for operations at the NRC, and other commission members and asked for cooperation to ensure that the APR1400 design certification process would proceed on schedule. The two sides discussed ways to prevent the process from being delayed due to the shutdown of the U.S. federal government.
The NRC issued a Standard Design Approval on the APR1400 nuclear reactor on Sept. 28, 2018 as evaluation results showed that the reactor satisfied U.S. safety regulations. The NRC is now working on the certification process.
Once this process is completed, the certification will be included in the appendix of the U.S. federal regulations. In this case, when a utility company in the United States wants to obtain permission to build and operate a nuclear power plant, the nuclear reactor will be exempted from a standard design approval review.
The APR1400 is a new Korean light water reactor with a power generation capacity of 1,400 MW. The Shin-Kori No. 3 reactor has been in commercial operation since 2016, and five units are currently under construction in Korea. The four reactors under construction in the UAE are also the APR1400 model.