South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden released a joint statement on May 21, announcing that the United States and South Korea would work together in the global nuclear power market. According to the fact sheet that was made public together, the two countries will co-participate in the market by forming supply chains together.

Although the joint statement mentions nothing about small modular reactors (SMRs), the two countries are highly likely to collaborate in this field as well, given that SMRs are emerging as an effective tool for carbon neutrality, a global concern.

These days, the United States is increasing its investment in SMRs to that end. The South Korean government is continuing with its research on the technology in order to export more nuclear power plants and keep competitiveness of domestic nuclear ecosystem regardless of its current nuclear phase-out policy. This is why the collaboration is highly likely.

At present, a total of 71 SMRs are in the process of development in the United States, South Korea, Russia, China, etc. The current leader in the sector is the United States, which is working on 17. The United States Department of Energy decided in October last year to invest US$3.2 billion in SMR and next-generation nuclear reactor technology development for seven years to come. In the case of the United States, the R&D investment cannot fully bear fruit if manufacturing foundations to materialize the R&D outcome are absent in its territory.

South Korea is second to none in the world when it comes to manpower and technological strength in the field. In fact, it is South Korea that developed the world’s first SMR. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute started developing system-integrated modular advanced reactors as SMR models in as early as 1997 and obtained the world’s first standard design approval in the industry in 2012. Besides, APR1400, a next-generation nuclear reactor developed by South Korea, obtained a final design approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2019. The development of new innovative SMRs is accelerated by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute since the summit.

On South Korea’s part, the collaboration will substantially facilitate its global market entry, given the huge U.S. influence on the global nuclear power market. On the United States’ part, the collaboration can be of great help in trying to regain its leadership from Russia and China. The United States is excellent in design and fundamental technology, and South Korea excels at construction and equipment. There is no doubt that the collaboration will be a win-win strategy, leading to substantial enhancement of competitiveness and enrichment of the industrial ecosystems of both nations.