By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

South Korea could make its second deal selling its domestically produced nuclear power plants abroad as a U.S. company is reportedly considering importing Korean nuclear reactors.

The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), however, downplayed the reports, saying nothing has been confirmed.
The state-run energy company led the Korean consortium that recently won the bid for a nuclear power generation project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternative Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI), met with officials of plant-related firms including KEPCO in Seoul to discuss a nuclear energy deal over the last couple of days.

The visit is aimed at finalizing negotiations to import the Korean advanced reactor, APR 1400, which would be built in Idaho and Colorado if the deal is completed, CNNMoney.com reported.

“We expect the agreement to be similar to the one with the UAE; such technology should give AEHI a serious competitive advantage.” Gillispie was reportedly said.

AEHI purportedly first talked with KEPCO and the Korean government a year ago.
AEHI is the only publicly traded independent nuclear power plant developer in the United States willing to build power plants in non-nuclear states.

Its ongoing projects include Colorado Energy Park, which will accommodate nuclear energy in power generation along with solar power.

However, KEPCO said nothing concrete has been discussed during Gillispie’s visit.
“We don’t see much likelihood of a deal,” a KEPCO spokeswoman told The Korea Times. “I’m afraid AEHI is going a bit too far in promoting it.”

“The nuclear industry deals with massive projects and is sensitive to safety. If we are to strike a deal with a private company, we would want a more sizeable one,” she said. AEHI is relatively small with a capitalization of just $200,000

South Korea became the world’s sixth exporter of nuclear plants after it won the UAE bid last month.
The consortium of KEPCO, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp, and Doosan Heavy Industries beat out two rival bidders, top-notch global players in the industry, to snatch the largest-ever energy deal in the Middle East.

Other competitors in the race were a consortium of General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp, and a French consortium led by Areva SA, the leader in the nuclear energy industry.

The $40 billion contract is likely to lead to more agreements to build several more nuclear reactors of the same design in the UAE.

Nuclear reactors are expected to supply half of the country’s energy demand by 2020. Four 1.4-megawatt plants will be built in the initial stage of the project.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr