Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power are embroiled in controversy as they agreed to pay Westinghouse $175 million (approximately 240 billion won) in royalties per exported nuclear power plant over the next 50 years during the process of securing the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic.
In the nuclear industry, there are voices arguing that Korea should have continued the intellectual property dispute with Westinghouse, while others suggest a quick agreement would be better for faster exports.
Westinghouse raised issues claiming that Korea 'misappropriated core technology' when Korea secured the Barakah and Czech nuclear power plants. KHNP initially received assistance, but later argued that they developed the technology independently.
The 1,400 MW class third-generation nuclear power plant APR1400 developed by Korea is an improved version of the OPR1000. Korea developed the OPR1000 in 1995, which was based on the 'System 80' design of the pressurized water reactor by Combustion Engineering (CE).
Following the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in March 1979, the United States completely halted the construction of new nuclear power plants. As work dwindled, CE faced bankruptcy and proposed a transfer of reactor technology to Korea. In response, the Korean government signed a technology transfer contract with CE and began designing a Korean-type reactor based on the System 80 model.
At that time, the reactor system design was handled by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, and Korea Heavy Industries (now Doosan Enerbility) manufactured reactor equipment, turbines, and generators in collaboration with CE. In the design of nuclear fuel, including the shaping process of nuclear fuel, KEPCO NF and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute introduced CE and Siemens technologies and began efforts for technological independence.
Korea created the Kori Unit 3 with a technological independence level of 95% on March 31, 1995. In 2001, they developed APR1400 referring to CE's reactor design. This achieved localization of the entire nuclear power industry cycle, from design and component development to supply chain securing and construction.
Unable to overcome financial difficulties, CE was acquired by Westinghouse in 2000, and all intellectual property rights were transferred. Westinghouse designed the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor in 1957 and holds numerous core technologies.
Westinghouse, having secured CE's intellectual property rights, raised issues every time Korea moved forward with nuclear power exports, claiming 'technology was misappropriated.' When Korea secured the Barakah nuclear power plant in 2009, they raised concerns over critical technologies such as the reactor coolant pump (RCP), the nuclear instrumentation and control system (MMIS), and core codes of nuclear power design.
In response, KHNP purchased RCP, MMIS, and other technologies from Westinghouse after winning the Barakah nuclear power plant contract. Subsequently, Korea successfully localized all components including RCP, MMIS, and design codes.
Within KHNP, there were calls to conclude matters as Westinghouse raised issues again during the Czech nuclear power export process. However, it was decided to reach an agreement with Westinghouse and align with the U.S. to avoid worsening relations.
An industry insider noted, 'The total scale of the Czech nuclear power project is 26 trillion won, and if 480 billion won is paid as royalties for each unit, that would be 1.85% of the total project cost,' adding, 'While this is regrettable, looking at the patent disputes between Samsung and Apple, the payment of royalties for core technology is an unavoidable aspect.'
When the smartphone market began to open in 2011, Apple filed a lawsuit claiming that Samsung Electronics' smartphones resembled the iPhone. They argued that the design patents were violated due to features such as the rounded corner rectangular product design, the black border around the screen, and the grid arrangement of applications.
The patent dispute between Samsung Electronics and Apple was settled in 2018, with the settlement amount estimated to be between 600 billion and 700 billion won. This represented 47% of the annual operating profit of their mobile division at the time.