South Korea looks to Southern and NuScale

Second, on its first quarter earnings call, Corvallis, Ore.–based NuScale Power announced that it is currently in discussions with the South Korean government regarding potential investments in the U.S. nuclear sector.

Southern update: On April 12, at KHNP headquarters in Gyeongju, South Korea, Southern Nuclear and KHNP signed an MOU to expand their technical exchange programs, compare best practices, and partake in a series of workshops. Generally, these initiatives are aimed at strengthening areas such as plant operation, maintenance, reliability, and engineering.

About the MOU, head of KHNP’s Engineering Division Young-seung Kim said, "This agreement is expected to help our engineers broaden their global perspective and provide an opportunity for our engineering system to advance further.”

NuScale update: Developments at NuScale tie directly into a broader $350 billion investment pledge South Korea has made to the United States. That pledge was first made last year during ongoing tariff negotiations and was approved by the South Korean parliament in March of this year. Currently, discussions are active between senior government officials from each country on the details of that pledge.

In its first quarter earnings call, NuScale directly referenced this pledge. John Hopkins, NuScale CEO, said that $200 billion of that pledge is earmarked “for sectors like nuclear power, AI, and semiconductors” and is “aimed at securing economic ties between the two countries and reducing tariffs.”

Later in the call, Hopkins added that “last week, we met with the Korean government,” which reaffirmed that a “significant piece” of the total investment will be “energy projects, including [small modular reactors] in the United States.”

NuScale chief operating officer Carl Fischer added that, historically, NuScale has had strong relationships with both South Korea and Japan as investors and supply chain partners, specifically naming IHI Corporation and Doosan Enerbility as two companies with which NuScale maintains long-standing partnerships.

As with the new developments at Southern, NuScale did not give a timeline for how its partnership with South Korea will develop or when final funding decisions can be expected.