Hyundai Heavy to invest $30 million in TerraPower for SMR business

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Group said on Friday it has signed a deal to invest $30 million in TerraPower, a US nuclear power venture founded by Bill Gates, to make its foray into the carbon-free energy market.

The shipbuilding-construction equipment-energy conglomerate said it is making the investment through Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE), its intermediate shipbuilding holding company.

The investment marks the first time that Hyundai Heavy has invested in a nuclear reactor developer.

The deal follows a similar agreement between Korea’s SK Group and TerraPower in August.

SK’s holding company SK Inc. and its energy and battery affiliate SK Innovation Co. said at the time that they are investing $250 million in TerraPower to venture into the small modular reactor (SMR) business.

Founded by Bill Gates in 2008, TerraPower is a nuclear reactor design and development engineering company.

SMRs, designed to produce less than 500 megawatts-electric, are regarded as next-generation energy sources due to their lower investment costs and fewer carbon emissions than existing large nuclear power plants. SMRs are also safer as they can be cooled without complicated safety devices.

According to the World Economic Forum, the global SMR market is forecast to grow to $300 billion by 2040 from $4.57 billion in 2019.

NEXT-GENERATION REACTORS

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, TerraPower also holds design technology for the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a next-generation reactor.

SFR technology is drawing attention as it uses liquid sodium as a coolant that has a high boiling point and little risk of explosion. The US venture company is conducting an SFR demonstration project with financial support from the Department of Energy for commercialization in 2028.

Hyundai Heavy Industries is seeking new business opportunities with its investment in TerraPower.

The company said it eventually aims to enter the offshore nuclear power generation and nuclear-powered ship construction businesses.

Hyundai Heavy has already participated in the development of core facilities for the Korean-type magnetic fusion device called KSTAR, and an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project dubbed ITER.

The conglomerate, which announced its Hydrogen Dream 2030 Roadmap last year, also venture into the next-generation energy development business, including hydrogen, ammonia and methanol.

Write to Kyung-Min Kang at Kkm1026@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.