The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by KAERI President Han Gyu Joo (pictured above left) and Seaborg CEO Klaus Nyengaard at the Danish ambassador's residence in Seoul on 27 May.
Both KAERI and Seaborg have been developing molten salt reactors and Seaborg said the MoU "paves the way for both institutions to leverage their respective research and development expertise and infrastructure". It added that they aimed "to create a synergistic relationship that will enhance their capabilities and drive forward innovations in nuclear technology".
Seaborg's design is for modular compact molten salt reactor (CMSR) power barges equipped with between two and eight 100 MWe reactors, with an operational life of 24 years. Instead of having solid fuel rods that need constant cooling, the CMSR's fuel is mixed in a liquid salt that acts as a coolant, which means that it will simply shut down and solidify in case of emergency. However, the low-enriched fluoride fuel salt is not yet commercially available, so Seaborg last year announced the initial power barges will be fuelled with low-enriched uranium.
Among its existing links with South Korea, in April this year Seaborg signed an MoU with KEPCO Nuclear Fuel and GS Engineering & Construction which would "facilitate a joint feasibility study enabling all parties to determine the project's scope and timeline for establishing fuel salt production in accordance with their respective roles and collaborative endeavours".
And in April 2022, South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industriessigned an MoU with Seaborg to manufacture and sell turnkey power plants combining its ship-building expertise and Seaborg's compact molten salt reactor. It also covered the development of hydrogen production plants and ammonia plants.
The timeline for Seaborg, which was founded in 2014, has been for commercial production of Power Barges beginning from 2028.
In February last year, nine South Korean organisations - including KAERI - signed an MoU to cooperate on the development and demonstration of ships and offshore systems powered with small modular reactors, and jointly developing a molten salt reactor suitable for use in marine vessels.
