Strategic Alliance
South Korea and the United States are expected to expand their cooperation in the nuclear power industry through the summit on May 21. The cooperation is expected to revolve around small modular reactor (SMR) development and their high-level bilateral commission (HLBC) in the industry is expected to be reopened.
The commission was launched in 2016 after their agreement on nuclear energy use was revised in 2015. In August 2018, intellectual property disputes occurred between Westinghouse and KEPCO and the commission came to a halt. The commission covers spent nuclear fuel management, fuel supply to nuclear power plants, overseas nuclear power plant construction, nuclear security, etc.
The cooperation for SMR development can be regarded as a strategic alliance against China and Russia. Both South Korea and the United States built no nuclear power plants for long and Russia and China have increased their presence in the industry in that period. Specifically, according to the World Nuclear Association, a total of 50 reactors are scheduled to be built by 2027 worldwide and China and Russia are to build 15 and 12 out of the 50, respectively. These days, China is increasing its global market presence by building a number of nuclear power plants at home and Russia is building new ones in Turkey, Iran, Bangladesh, Slovakia, and so on.
In that period, the United States and South Korea are supposed to build two and six reactors, respectively. Nuclear power plant construction by the United States was halted in the period of 1979 to 2010 and the United States has yet to recover its competitiveness. South Korea’s track record has been zero for the past five years, when the previous government adhered to a nuclear power phase-out.
The United States and South Korea are aiming to turn the tables by developing SMRs. In fact, the bilateral cooperation is already underway in the private sector. Samsung C&T and NuScale Power recently discussed mutual cooperation for joint business and market expansion. TerraPower and SK Group recently signed a memorandum of understanding for comprehensive business cooperation.