A machine size of an eight -story building works tirelessly in the South Korean port city of Changwon hitting huge red steel blocks with the strength of 240,000 men. The Forja Press of Doosan Enerbility – the largest of its kind in the world – molds the incandescent metal that serves to manufacture ships for ships, rollers for steel and other fundamental components of the industry. Currently, many pieces are also manufactured for nuclear reactors. South Core has been developing its own atomic technology, with an eye on both its growing energy consumption and in the global urgency for abandoning fossil fuels. Now, this discreet but efficient industry, which thrives on the southeast coast of the country, is attracting the attention of Western countries that seek safe energy, with low emissions and an affordable price, without relying on Russia or China, the great dominators of the atom sector. The world nuclear industry has experienced a spectacular rebirth in recent years, promoted by climatic concern and the growing energy demands of 21st century technology. The reactors supply almost a tenth of world energy, but the forecasts indicate that the production of atomic plants should be tripled by 2050 if you want to stop the worst scenario of the planet's heating. More than 30 countries have pledged to help reach that goal. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) increase that pressure: by 2027, the generative AI could consume as much energy as Spain needed in 2022, Morgan Stanley estimated last year. Energies such as wind and solar can help reduce the carbon footprint associated with that increase and, in addition, energy storage costs are decreasing, but cannot supply low carbon energy and easily available 24 hours a day as if possible with nuclear. «The demand for energy is increasing and people ask for clean energy available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,» says Jongwoo Kim, Vice President of Doosan. «Nuclear energy is the only option that both offers.» As companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Meta prepare to use more nuclear energy, the message is clear: more reactors are urgently needed. According to Clean Air Task Force, a non -profit climatic organization will require up to nine billion dollars in investment in the next 25 years to triple nuclear capacity, that is, about 250,000 million dollars per year.
Some doubts
What is less obvious is who will build them, since this industry has contracted by the pressure of high costs, long deadlines, strict regulation and political opposition. The United States and France, formerly pillars of the sector, have accumulated costs and delays. Russia and China, current giants, have difficulty attract Western buyers due to national security concerns. And Japan is still recovering from Fukushima's nuclear disaster in 2011.That leaves South Korea, a relatively new actor in nuclear exports, in a position to take advantage of this profitable opportunity. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of more than 400 planned or proposed reactors worldwide, South Korea is in a position to take 43% of them, which would make the country one of the largest atomic technology exporters of the next decade. China will become the first world producer of nuclear energy around 2030, but mainly focused on its domestic market. «We can deliver a nuclear plant on time and within the budget,» says Kum Yong Jang, interim mayor of Changwon. «That is why the world is interested in Korean technology.» Seúl committed in 2022 to export 10 reactors by the end of this decade. His first international project was Barakah, in the United Arab Emirates, a contract of 20,000 million dollars awarded in 2009 and ended in 2023. What caught the attention of the veterans of the sector was that it was completed with few delays, something unusual in this industry known for its huge extra costs. «People were very skeptical,» says Chanho Ahn, director of New Energy at Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co, responsible for the construction of four reactors. «We did exactly the same thing we have done in projects in Korea.» The next challenge is in Europe. Last summer, a South Korean group, led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), was selected as a preferential contractor for a Czech project, instead of Electricité de France (EDF), to build two nuclear reactors for 18,000 million dollars. In early May, a Czech court temporarily prevented the government from signing the agreement after EDF challenged the result. The European Commission has expressed concern. Some are state and others are private companies, many of which benefit from financing and government loans. It is a similar approach to that of China or Russia, where national supply chains are used to achieve the firm and compliance with agreements between governments. «They have huge advantages thanks to their Team Korea approach,» says Mark Nelson, director of Radiant Energy Group, a consultant who works mainly with western clients of the nuclear industry. «They arrive in a client country as a single group.» Another ingredient is coherence, says Bum-Jin Chung, professor of nuclear engineering at Kyung Hee University, which is part of government advisory advice and is director of the company of small modular reactors (SMR) Nuscale Power Corp. Increase before starting to export technology, South Korea had half a century testing its nuclear capacity. After the end of the Korean War in 1953, President Syngman Rhee considered the reactors as a key tool for energy supply and the reconstruction of the country. The first commercial reactor began to be built in 1971, with American technology (Korea developed his later). Today there are 26 active reactors in the country and it is expected that several more enter into operation by 2038. «We have been building nuclear power plants for more than 50 years,» says Chung. «We have never stopped.»The former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Prime Minister Czech, Petry He paralyzed after Three Mile Island accident in 1979, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The French industry had to deal with the public opposition after Chernobil disaster in Ukraine in 1986. Japan suffered its great disaster in Fukushima in 2011. All had years of inactivity and loss of experience. South Korea, so far, has avoided that. Their reactor designs have been certified for use in Europe by the European Utility Organization requirements, and their decades of experience have trained an army of qualified workers who know how to build complex energy systems that, in general, avoid cost overruns and delays. Despite all enthusiasm, the Korean industry has also experienced stumbling blocks. The use of cheap migrant labor in the Middle East has been criticized, one of the reasons why Barakah was profitable, according to Kyoungsook Choi, coordinator of Energy and Climate Change of the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements, an activist group. That could be difficult to replicate in the Czechian, where the government expects KHNP to hire local workers to perceive higher wages. «The United Arab Emirates project is not a case of success,» says Choi. (KHNP declined to comment, although the main contractor of the project, Korea Electric Power, states that the agreement with the Emirates should be considered exceptional success, given the frequent delays and cost overheads in large -scale nuclear projects).
Internal turbulence
South Korea is also lagging behind the industry giants. China, the largest builder in the world, has 30 reactors in manufacturing, almost half of the world total, mainly using local technology. Its flagship reactor, the Hualong One, costs a fraction of Westerners, although so far it has only been exported to Pakistan. Russia has perfected its technology for years and has sold it to India, Iran and other countries. Internal turbulence and political changes in the country could also be brought into the ambitions of South Korea. In April, the Constitutional Court unanimously confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, a firm supporter of nuclear energy. With Yoon outside, the favorite to replace him is Lee Jae-Myung, leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party. Lee Jae-Myung has not made any official announcement about its nuclear policy. In the past, however, Lee promised not to build new reactors and close the existing ones at the end of his useful life. This could stop state support, especially in financial guarantees. «Who is willing to assume the enormous financial risk of construction? Nuclear projects are almost always too large for a single public services company, provider or bank to finance them,» says Mark Nelson, director of Radiant Energy Group. «Korea assumes enormous financial risk as a state by offering competitive packages to interested countries.» Even so, other countries are worse. Let's take the case of Hinkley Point C, in the United Kingdom, built by EDF. Now the two reactors are expected to be finished around 2030 after multiple delays and almost 48,000 million pounds will cost (64,000 million dollars). Or the United States, where two reactors at the Vogtle plant, in Georgia, developed by Westinghouse Electric, were delayed seven years and exceeded the budget by more than 100%. Meanwhile, Doosan, the owner of the Changwon Forge press, hopes that his portfolio of nuclear equipment orders will triple 20.6 billion wones (14.4 billion dollars) by 2029. The company manufactured pieces for the Georgia plant and will supply components for Nuscale, the only SMR design that has so far received the approval of the United States. «If I advised a country that wants to build large reactors, I would recommend to the Koreans,» says Chris Gadomski, Bloombergnef's main nuclear analyst.
