SK ties up with Bill Gates’ TerraPower for small nuclear reactor biz

SK Group, South Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate, joined hands with TerraPower, an advanced nuclear power venture founded by billionaire Bill Gates, to start the small modular reactor (SMR) business with a target of carbon neutrality.

SK Inc., the group’s holding company, and its energy affiliate SK Innovation Co. agreed with TerraPower, founded by Gates in 2008, on comprehensive business cooperation.

The group plans to discover various business opportunities linked with TerraPower’s next-generation SMR technologies, SK Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We will not only secure new technologies on nuclear power plants but also help enhance the vitality of the overall ecosystem of the local nuclear power industry,” said an SK official.

ELECTRICITY WITH FEWER CARBON EMISSIONS

SK Group has been paying attention to SMRs as a power source with fewer carbon emissions as the chaebol last year unveiled a goal of contributing to a 1% cut of global carbon reduction targets by 2030.

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.

TerraPower also holds design technology for the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a type of next-generation reactor. TerraPower’s SFR technology is in the spotlight as it uses liquid sodium as a coolant that has a high boiling point and little risk of explosion. The US venture is conducting an SFR demonstration project with financial support from the Department of Energy for commercialization in 2028.

Write to Kyung-Min Kang at kkm@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.