Focusing on Development of Small Modular Reactors
Doosan Group announced on May 25 that it will invest five trillion won in energy fields, including small modular reactors (SMRs), gas turbines, hydrogen turbines and hydrogen fuel cell, over the next five years.
The group plans to focus on the development of SMRs, which emerged as one of the main pillars of the Korea-U.S. economic and security alliance, along with semiconductors and batteries.
Doosan Enerbility (formerly Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction) signed an agreement with NuScale of the United States on April 25 to manufacture main components of SMRs.
“NuScale will develop and design main frames for SMRs and Doosan Enerbility will manufacture them,” a company official explained. NuScale is the only company which obtained standard design certification for SMRs from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2020.
Doosan Enerbility plans to make related investments to revitalize the domestic nuclear power plant ecosystem so that it can start production of main SMR bodies in the second half of 2023. It has already made a US$104 million equity investment in NuScale along with Korean investors and has secured the right to supply trillions of won worth of equipment.
The company also signed an SMR design contract with X-energy of the United States in September 2021 and is promoting participation in production of the SMRs for the U.S. company. Doosan Enerbility plans to aggressively pursue investment in expanding production facilities to target the global SMR market and diversify its business.
Gas turbine and hydrogen turbine businesses are also major investment targets. Doosan Enerbility is installing a 270MW gas turbine which was successfully developed for the fifth time in the world in 2019 at Gimpo Combined Heat and Power Plant, and plans to test-operate it beginning from next year. Currently, it is focusing on the development of an upgraded 380MW gas turbine and a hydrogen turbine through new investment.
Doosan’s investments in the hydrogen business aim to build a lineup of hydrogen fuel cell products. Doosan Fuel Cell started the construction of a 50MW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plant in the Saemangeum Industrial Complex in April to mass-produce SOFCs. The SOFC plant is scheduled to be completed and mass-produce SOFCs by 2023. Doosan Fuel Cell plans to enter the market for SOFCs for power generation in 2024 and SOFCs for ships in 2025.
Doosan plans to gradually increase investment in the semiconductor business which it entered in April, by expanding existing factories and constructing new ones. Through this, it will solidify the competitiveness of Doosan Tesna as the No. 1 semiconductor testing company in Korea and gradually expand its business area into a semiconductor back-end process specialist by securing cutting-edge packaging technology in the mid- to long-term. By doing so, it will make a leap forward to become a core company in the Korean system semiconductor ecosystem.