Hyundai Engineering has signed back-to-back agreements with U.S. developers of small modular reactors (SMRs), stepping up its push into the next-generation nuclear market. Drawing on its nuclear design record, the company plans to join fourth-generation SMR demonstration projects and expand into engineering, procurement and construction (EPC).
Hyundai Engineering said on the 27th that it signed memorandums of understanding on the 23rd with NANO Nuclear Energy (NNE) and ARC Clean Technology (ARC), two U.S. companies developing next-generation reactors.
NNE, headquartered in New York, develops microreactors based on high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology. Hyundai Engineering plans to take part in the KRONOS MMR demonstration project that NNE is pursuing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) campus. The two sides will cooperate on EPC for reactor support facilities, as well as modular design reviews, supply chain development and business development.
With ARC, the company will cooperate on an SMR business based on sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) technology. ARC is developing the ARC-100, a 100-megawatt reactor, and is pursuing a commercial demonstration plant of about 200 megawatts at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site in the U.S. Hyundai Engineering plans to pursue EPC cooperation and new business opportunities as the project progresses.
Since setting up a nuclear division in 1985, Hyundai Engineering has carried out 254 nuclear-related projects, including operating power plants, nuclear fuel facilities and research reactors. In 2007, it became the first South Korean builder to win comprehensive design qualification for Grade Q nuclear quality facilities. Overseas, it upgraded research reactor facilities at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and recently signed a consulting and preliminary design contract for the University of Missouri's next-generation research reactor project.
"Our experience in large-scale plant projects is leading to cooperation with global SMR companies," a Hyundai Engineering official said. "We will grow into a trusted core partner in the global SMR market."