Korea bags Romanian project to refurbish nuclear reactor

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) on Thursday inked a final agreement with Romania’s Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica (SNN) to refurbish a nuclear reactor, marking South Korea’s foray into the nuclear plant refurbishment market.

It bagged the 2.8 trillion won ($1.9 billion) project in a consortium with Canada’s Candu Energy Inc. and Italy’s Ansaldo Nucleare SpA to extend the lifespan of the Unit 1 reactor at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant by 30 years, said KHNP.

The South Korean energy company is in charge of replacing reactor components and infrastructure facilities such as radioactive waste storage. It accounts for 40% of the project and translates into about 1.2 trillion won ($830 million), 

The Unit 1 went into commercial operation in 1996. It is one of Romania’s two nuclear reactors and modeled after the Candu-6 like the four Wolseong reactors, South Korea’s first pressurized heavy water reactors.

The Canadian company will take responsibility for refurbishing the reactor systems. Ansaldo Nucleare will be tasked with turbine power system upgrades and equipment purchases.

KHNP, wholly owned by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), will team up with KEPCO Plant Service & Engineering Co., Doosan Enerbility Co., Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. and Samsung C&T Corp. for the 65-month project that starts in February 2025.

It is the first overseas project for nuclear reactor refurbishment awarded to South Korean companies. It followed the nuclear power construction orders it clinched from Egypt in 2022 and Bulgaria this year.

A South Korean consortium led by KHNP was selected in July as the preferred bidder to build new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic in a $17.1 billion deal.

“We expect this order (from Romania) will diversify our nuclear exports from heavy water reactor and equipment construction to refurbishment to extend their lifespan,” said an official of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

“It will greatly contribute to restoring the domestic nuclear ecosystem,” he added.

According to US-based Zion Market Research, the global nuclear reactor refurbishment market is forecast to double to $91.3 billion by 2032 from $46.3 billion in 2023.

Write to Jung-Hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.