KEPCO E&C Makes Global Entrance in France with Thermonuclear Energy

For closer and faster cooperation with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), KEPCO Engineering & Construction Company (KEPCO E&C) opened a representative office in France.

On June 6, about 20 guests including the CEO of KEPCO E&C Park koo-woun, Secretary General of ITER Osamu Motojima, ITER Korea Project Director Jung ki-jung, Minister of Korean Embassy in France Lim woong-soon, and Deputy Mayor of Aix-en-Provence Pierre Castoldi participated to celebrate the opening ceremony.

The ITER project is a mega-scale international cooperative R&D project in which seven countries including the US, Russia, and the EU put thermonuclear energy to use in hopes of eventually replacing oil and coal power and slow down global warming. KEPCO E&C acquired projects worth a total of 50 billion won (US$49.4 million) in 2008. It decided to open a contact office in France to work closer with ITER, increase the number of projects, and also expand its market in building power plants in Europe.

In April, KEPCO E&C closed a contract on cable engineering service worth 18.3 million euros (28 billion won, US$24.8 million). It will be in charge of design and technical support for cables that will be used for building a 500MW experimental thermonuclear reactor in France over five years. To build this reactor, it will take a cable that is large enough to handle four nuclear plants. World-renowned companies like Alstom, Cegelec, Empresario Agrupados, and Tata Consortium also bid for this project, and KEPCO won the bid.

ITER Korea Project Director Jung ki-jung said, “KEPCO E&C made a great contribution to get Korea’s technology recognized globally through dispatching qualified human resources and continuous project acquisition.”

Last year, KEPCO E&C and the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) acquired a turn-key project of design, purchasing, and pilot testing of a central interlocked controller worth 7.8 million euros (10.8 billion won, US$10.6 million), which the ITER international organization ordered. The consortium was recognized by the ITER international organization for its superior design technology of controllers and project performance and experience in building atomic power plants. It beat out companies in France and Spain.

A source from KEPCO E&C’s Nuclear Department said, “It’s meaningful because by acquiring a project for a controller system network implementing service in such a large scale, we have proven that KEPCO E&C is not a major ITER project executor.”