Based energy: South Korea’s secret path to riches
How the country is going K-nuclear
“...Science and civilization stand shoulder to shoulder in a common endeavour to work for the betterment of mankind” - Peter Medawar
While many countries struggle to build large infrastructure projects and are suffering from deindustrialisation, South Korea is bucking the trend. This country has one of the world’s largest economies, a concrete plan for continued growth, and the crucial but increasingly rare ability and ambition to build.
South Korea is also known as a cultural powerhouse thanks to K-pop and its dynamic film industry, which has been fondly dubbed ‘Hallyuwood’. Among the Korean words that have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary over the last decade are hallyu - meaning ‘Korean wave’ - for its highly successful pop culture (think K-pop group BTS and TV series Squid Game), and the typical Korean expression daebak, which is a way of expressing enthusiastic approval akin to ‘awesome’ or ‘amazing’.
What’s their secret?
It began with energy
In 1961, South Korea formed the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) by merging three existing electric companies, as part of a five-year economic development plan.
In 1972 South Korea began construction of its first commercial nuclear power plant, at a time when the country’s per-capita income was slightly lower than that of North Korea. Since South Korea had a relatively small industrial base at the time, undertaking a large infrastructure project was risky.
Propitiously, the venture paid off, and South Korea’s daring has been an overture to success: the country’s industrial growth is largely thanks to nuclear power. With 25 nuclear reactors, South Korea is currently the world’s sixth-largest producer of nuclear energy. In 2022, South Korea ranked third worldwide in terms of the number of nuclear reactors under construction, following China and India.
The country has put a significant amount of effort into developing its nuclear industry, which is demonstrated by the three South Korean power plants in the top five on the list of leading nuclear power plants ranked by capacity in 2023.
After President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in 2022, the administration embraced nuclear energy fully. Speaking of the previous government’s stance against nuclear energy, Yoon pulled no punches, stating: “Had we not been foolish over the past five years and further reinforced the nuclear power ecosystem, we probably would not have any competitors now.”
As well as investing in large-scale nuclear, South Korea’s largest shipbuilder is planning to develop small modular reactors (SMRs) for new builds.
One of South Korea's strengths is its prioritisation of the education and training of specialised nuclear engineers and technicians: the country has several universities based on this expertise, and the government has also now set up a graduate school for managing high-level radioactive waste.
With this strong foundation at home, South Korea is undertaking a major export drive abroad.
A drive to export expertise
Before taking office, President Yoon pledged to export 10 nuclear power plants by 2030.
The OPR1000 is a South Korean-designed 1,000 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear reactor, developed by nuclear technology supplier Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and KEPCO. It has been adapted to create the APR1000, an evolutionary PWR design which is intended for overseas markets. A single APR1000 puts out 1,100 MWe and only takes up roughly the size of a large IKEA or Walmart.
Korean Nuclear Society President Jerng Dong-wook has said: “The nuclear power plant ecosystem can revive if the government succeeds in exporting with diplomacy.” Last year, KHNP's APR1000 reactor design was formally certified as compliant by the technical advisory group European Utility Requirements (EUR), which oversees nuclear power plant standards including assessment, construction, licensing and supply.
In 2009, the United Arab Emirates accepted a $20 billion bid from a South Korean consortium to build four commercial APR1400 units. This was the first overseas nuclear power plant designed and built by South Korea and it put their success with nuclear technology at home to the test abroad. The Barakah nuclear power plant showcases South Korea's technological prowess abroad and establishes a template for future exports.
Following this success, South Korea has eyes on other nuclear-ready nations. President Yoon’s recent state visit to the Netherlands resulted in an agreement to cooperate on nuclear power. South Korea is also competing with China and Russia to gain a foothold in building nuclear power plants in Africa. Africa’s ongoing industrialisation and electricity deficit make nuclear energy a top priority - according to The World Bank, at the current electrification rates, over half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will still be without electricity in 2030. KHNP is after a share of the continent’s emerging market.
In 2022 Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants LLP signed a memorandum of understanding with KHNP on nuclear energy development. Kazakh government officials are considering only four reactor designs - Chinese, French, Russian, and Korean.
The UK government has just announced that it is in talks with Japanese technology giant Hitachi to buy back a Welsh nuclear site in Wylfa, Anglesey, and ministers are looking for new buyers for the project, one of which is reportedly South Korea’s KEPCO.
South Korea is heavily developing the industry’s competitiveness by investing over 3 trillion South Korean won by 2025, and 399.2 billion won by 2028 on the development and commercialisation of SMRs.
Proving the standardisation model
Standardisation is key to South Korea’s success with nuclear energy. This means building the same design, ideally using the same engineers who have become familiar with the design, repeatedly, and licensing multiple new reactors at the same time. A paper on standarisation in South Korea summarises that: “Where a number of nuclear power plants are constructed in series within the framework of a long-term national power development plan, nuclear power plant standardisation can definitely facilitate self-reliance in the technology.”
As President Yoon puts it, "The competitiveness of our nuclear plant businesses lies in our ability to construct on time and on budget, which no other company in the world can imitate."
I am often asked what my favourite reactor design is, and I have always responded by saying that every reactor that is delivering clean energy right now is the best reactor. And that the best design is the one that gets built. Using this measure, the APR1000 is a strong candidate.
Embracing a high-energy virtual world
Virtual worlds are endemic in South Korea, which has its own Metaverse Seoul, online live performances, virtual pets, virtual foods, virtual theme parks, avatars for therapy, and much more available on the digital market. South Korea has one of the fastest mobile internet speeds in the world (110 Mbps), and knows that it will need a lot of electricity to power all that internet use.
A strong economy
Unexpectedly, South Korea’s economy expanded by 1.4% in 2023, largely thanks to increased exports. South Korea has the foresight and ambition to pursue progress, while many Western countries are falling behind. The country is even outcompeting corporations for building contracts and challenging many of the old arguments against nuclear energy through good practice. There’s only one word congruous with South Korea’s triumph with nuclear energy and beyond, and that word is - daebak!
A very good summation of KHNP and Kepco. It should be noted that Barakah is not South Korea's first nuclear export project. It's the first with its own technology, the OPR-1000. Prior to that, KHNP was a leading partner in the design and construction of the two reactors in China at Qinshan Phase 3. These are two CANDU-6 reactors originally developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The Qinshan reactors for the past two decades have been the best performing reactors in China's rapidly growing nuclear power fleet.
The Qinshan project showed that KHNP was not limited to just its own technology but could make any reactor project a success where it had existing design and operating experience. South Korea has three CANDU-6 nuclear reactors in operation since the early 1990s at the Wolsong NPP. Wolsong-1 was shut down for purely domestic political reasons after completing its refurbishment program. All of the Wolsong reactors have typically been among the best and most reliable performing reactors in the world over the past three decades.
KHNP drew heavily on its Qinshan experience to complete Barakah as rapidly and effectively as it did. It should also be noted that like France South Korea licenced someone else's nuclear power design. In the case of the OPR-1000, it was developed out of the Babcock&Wilcox System 80+ design.
It's very good indeed that Zion is pointing out how successful the Korean nuclear programme has been, both at home and abroad. It is truly remarkable that South Korea has grown a strong industrial manufacturing base despite having NO domestic fossil fuel supplies whatsoever. In the current world economy, this is unprecedented, and shows how much the country has surpassed its impoverished neighbour to its north over the past four decades.
What an excellent read bit just on energy but also for industry Development and skulking.