HD Hyundai is set to embark on the development of key facilities for small modular reactors (SMR) in collaboration with the U.S. next-generation nuclear reactor innovator, TerraPower.
On the 20th, HD Hyundai announced that it had secured a contract from TerraPower for the manufacture of cylindrical reactor vessels. The newly contracted reactor vessel is expected to be used in TerraPower's fourth-generation sodium fast reactor (SFR) "Natrium," which will be installed in Camarillo, Wyoming, with a capacity of 345 megawatts (MW). The Natrium project aims for completion by 2030.
The SFR that HD Hyundai and TerraPower are developing is a type of SMR. The reactor vessel is one of the core facilities of the SFR, which encases the nuclear fission reaction core and safely maintains the coolant at high temperature and low pressure.
The SFR generates electricity by cooling the heat produced from fission of fast neutrons with liquid sodium rather than water. Among SMRs, it is noted for its high safety and technological maturity, having a spent nuclear fuel capacity one-twentieth that of existing reactors, making it the most prominent among next-generation SMRs.
A company official noted, "To carry out this project, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of HD Hyundai's institutional sector in shipbuilding, plans to actively utilize the expertise it has accumulated through participation in the development and manufacturing of vacuum vessels, which are key facilities for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and the Korean-type fusion research device."
Meanwhile, HD Hyundai led the joint establishment of the world's first international private organization in the marine nuclear power sector, the Marine Nuclear Energy Forum, in March. Since February, it has been conducting joint research on SMRs with leading global nuclear companies.