S.Korea releases guidelines on development of small modular reactors

South Korea has released guidelines on the advancement of small modular reactors (SMR), a critical sector for the domestic nuclear power industry, under the goal of creating a five-stage protection system including the development of a plant's outer wall that can withstand a crash by civil aircraft.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission on Tuesday announced this at a declaration ceremony for the direction of SMR safety regulations at President Hotel in the nation's capital. If an SMR is built according to the guidelines, the government-run body said, the risk of accident will drop to the level of "once in a billion years."

The gist of the regulations is ensuring inherent safety. The direction of design was specified based on the assumption of the temperature of nuclear fuel momentarily rising due to higher output by an SMR or if the electricity supply is cut off. This means that the SMR design must include automatic power reduction and normal operation of the coolant circulation system if a contingency occurs.

"The government's issuance of official guidelines for the SMR market is noteworthy," an industry source said. "With uncertainty over regulation resolved, domestic nuclear power companies this year are expected this year to launch SMR development on a full scale."

An SMR is a small nuclear reactor with electrical output of up to 300 megawatts and a fifth of the output of large commercial plants in operation. An SMR's reactor, steam generator, coolant pump and pressurizer are modularized into one container to ensure high safety.

Industry observers say SMRs will gradually replace thermal power plants using fossil fuels, with the global SMR market seen to reach 146 trillion won ($111 billion) by 2035.

Doosan Enerbility Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries are among domestic companies active in this field. The former supplies SMR equipment to NuScale Power, a US startup specializing in nuclear power plants, and the latter is targeting the offshore SMR market jointly with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com