SK Group invests $250 mn in Bill Gates’ nuclear reactor firm TerraPower

South Korea’s SK Group said on Monday it invested $250 million in TerraPower, a US venture founded by billionaire Bill Gates. 

The holding company SK Inc. and its affiliate SK Innovation Co. contributed to a $750 million fundraising co-led by Gates. 

With headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, TerraPower designs and develops smaller nuclear reactors known as SMRs or small modular reactors.

SMRs operate at a capacity of up to 500 megawatts.

Industry insiders say that Chey Tae-won, the chairman and CEO of SK Group, will likely meet with Gates during the Microsoft Corp. founder’s visit to Korea this week. 

FIRST INVESTMENT IN NUKE PLANTS

SK Group received the green light from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to inject $250 million into TerraPower, marking the first time the Korean company has invested in a nuclear reactor developer.

Chey signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TerraPower in May to cooperate on the development of the advanced technologies required for SMRs. 

The agreement also stipulates that the two sides will work together to commercialize SMRs in Korea and Southeast Asia. 

The two parties have been discussing equity investment since then. 

Founded by Gates in 2008, TerraPower aims to provide safe, abundant and affordable carbon-free energy. 

Apart from its founder, the company is most well-known for possessing advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) technology. 

SFR technology uses liquid sodium as a coolant, allowing it to operate at higher temperatures and lower pressures than current reactors that use water. 

The technology also uses a fast neutron spectrum, meaning that neutrons can cause fission without having to first be slowed down, as is done in current reactors, according to the US Department of Energy. 

This could allow SFRs to use both fissile materials and spent fuel from current reactors to produce electricity.

TerraPower said it aims to commercialize the technology by 2028.

TARGETING NET ZERO EMISSIONS

The latest investment by SK is the single largest injection of capital into a next-generation small-sized nuclear reactor developer. 

TerraPower intends to use the funds to speed up its innovations. 

The global market for SMRs is expected to be worth up to $300 billion a year by 2040, according to the World Economic Forum. 

The investment in SMRs is in line with the Korean conglomerate's pledge last year to reduce carbon emissions by 200 million tons by 2030, the company said in a statement.

“All SK Group affiliates will achieve net zero carbon emissions ahead of its 2050 goal,” Chey said at an executive-level meeting on June 23, 2021.

Chey elaborated that carbon neutrality is a deciding factor in the group's competitiveness.

Industry insiders said they expect Chey and Gates to meet later Tuesday. 

Gates visited the National Assembly at 10 a.m. and met with Speaker Kim Jin-pyo. While there, he is giving a speech on Korea's leadership role in coping with COVID-19 and future infectious diseases at a plenary session of the Special Committee on Budget and Settlement.

In 2013, then-Chairman of Microsoft Gates met with Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Lee Jae-Yong at the electronics giant's office in Seoul for dinner.

An SK employee said, however, that nothing is fixed when it comes to a potential meeting between Chey and Gates.

Write to Kyung-Min Kang at kkm1026@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.