Seoul seeks to boost nuclear activities

South Korea won a landmark deal to build nuclear reactors for the United Arab Emirates, boosting calls for lifting Seoul’s self-imposed ban on nuclear activities to tap bigger atomic reactor markets.

A South Korea-led consortium beat U.S. and French rivals and clinched a $40 billion deal to build and operate four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, in one of the world’s biggest nuclear power contracts, Seoul’s energy and industry ministry said Monday.
The deal marks South Korea’s first export of a nuclear power plant and its single largest overseas construction project in terms of value, it said. With the deal, South Korea becomes the world’s sixth exporter of nuclear power plants.

South Korea described the deal with the United Arab Emirates as a “milestone on the road to an era of South Korean-made nuclear power plants,” expressing hope it would kick-start an export drive for its nuclear technology.

“South Korea’s competitiveness in the field of nuclear power is becoming highly recognized in the international community,” said Kim Young-hak, vice minister for energy and industry.

Seoul has been in talks with Turkey over nuclear power reactors and plans to bid for a Turkish nuclear power plant construction project. Turkey is pushing to build four nuclear plants, each costing about $5 billion, along the coast of the Black Sea. The bids are expected to be called in the first half of next year, the ministry said.

The World Nuclear Association estimates that by 2030 the world will need 430 new nuclear power plants worth more than $1 trillion. South Korea is looking to make more deals to get a share of that market.

UPI