HD KSOE seeks to build nuclear power plant ships

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (HD KSOE) is hastening to advance into the nuclear power plant ship market in collaboration with global energy companies.

The intermediary company of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. said on Sunday it recently held a meeting on technology exchange with TerraPower, a small modular reactor (SMR) manufacturer founded by Bill Gates; Southern Company, a US energy holding firm; and Core Power, a British nuclear technology company.

They're aiming to commercialize molten salt reactors (MSRs) and load them aboard ships by 2035 to supply energy.

An MSR is a fourth-generation, salt-based nuclear reactor suitable for marine energy applications.

Nuclear power plant ships, a type of floating nuclear reactor, are regarded as next-generation nuclear power plants.

They are relatively immune to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis and unlikely to cause conflict with communities, which tend to oppose the construction of nuclear power stations near them.

HD KSOE also seeks to establish standards for nuclear power plant ships in consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAAA) and global classification organizations.

In April last year, Korean shipmaker Samsung Heavy Industries Co. formed a consortium to commercialize nuclear power ships in cooperation with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corp. and Seaborg Technologies, a Danish SMR developer.

Hanwha Ocean Co., the world’s No. 2 shipbuilder, has been participating in an offshore nuclear power project led by Indonesian SMR maker ThorCon.

Nuclear power plant ships with MSRs on board are able to supply small-scale nuclear energy to both shorefront and inland locations.

They target archipelago countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Brazil and Argentina with their long coastlines.

Russia has pioneered the MSR market. Moscow-based RosAtom, the world’s largest nuclear energy company, has been operating the nuclear power ship Akademik Lomonosov in a commercial capacity since 2019.

The ship, equipped with MSRs, can produce 100 megawatts of electricity for 12 years without securing additional fuel supply, according to the company.

In Japan, Imabari Shipbuilding and 12 other Japanese companies have co-invested $80 million in London-based Core Power to commercialize nuclear power plant ships by the 2030s.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article