Doosan Enerbility secures contract for cask design from KHNP

South Korea's Doosan Enerbility Co. announced on Thursday it secured a contract for dry storage systems of spent nuclear fuel comprehensive design service from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP).

This collaboration, won through international competitive bidding, projects Doosan Enerbility to finalize the design of a dry storage system, which includes a cask tailored for the transportation and safekeeping of spent nuclear fuel by 2027.

Subsequent to design completion, the company aims to acquire the necessary licenses.

After its initial phase as a power source, nuclear fuel is primarily cooled within a water-laden tank using a wet storage technique for about five years. Following this, a dry storage method takes over where the fuel is stored externally.

The casks employed during this phase are meticulously designed, employing cutting-edge manufacturing tech to ensure radiation and heat are safely managed.

Industry insiders from the nuclear power realm estimate a need for around 2,800 casks by 2060, catering to domestic dry storage and intermediate storage facilities. This could potentially propel the market value to 8.4 trillion won ($6.2 billion).

Given this anticipated demand, Doosan Enerbility is strategizing collaborations with over 140 regional small and medium-sized enterprises for future manufacturing assignments, in a bid to bolster the domestic nuclear power industry ecosystem.

The company has been developing a lineup of casks that can be applied to various environments both domestically and abroad since signing a technical cooperation agreement in 2015 with NAC International, a leading provider of nuclear fuel cycle technology and consulting solutions.

Doosan Enerbility and NAC co-developed a Korean-type metal storage container (MSO), which was approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for use in domestic projects.

Additionally, in 2019, Doosan Enerbility became the first Korean company to supply casks for the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear power plant in the US. It is currently manufacturing additional casks for Unit 2 of the same power plant, which it won a contract to supply in 2021.

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