An application for standard design approval of the Korean small modular reactor (SMR) "innovative SMR (i-SMR)" is expected to be filed in February. Standard design approval is the procedure to verify whether a reactor is designed safely, marking the start of the licensing process and the first gateway to commercialization.
On the 11th, according to the government and the nuclear power industry, the i-SMR technology development consortium, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission are coordinating the timetable for filing the i-SMR standard design approval application. An official at the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said, "We plan to submit the standard design approval application in February."
Standard design approval is the stage in which the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission verifies whether the reactor design meets Korea's nuclear safety regulatory standards. It is an approval that it is safe to build an SMR according to the design prepared by the innovative SMR technology development consortium.
Standard design approval is granted through a process in which researchers at the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety pose questions and the innovative SMR technology development consortium provides answers. According to the nuclear industry, standard design approval alone can take at least three years, and design modifications and supplements may be made during the standard design approval process. Only after obtaining standard design approval can Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP), the domestic nuclear power plant operator, apply to the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission for SMR construction authorization and begin SMR construction.
An SMR is a reactor of 300 megawatts (MW) or less, designed so that reactor components are manufactured as modules in a factory and can be easily assembled on site. As of 2022, more than 80 types of SMRs are under development worldwide. The nuclear industry expects SMR commercialization to peak in the 2030s.
The government has also embarked on SMR development. The result is the i-SMR, a national research and development project pursued by the government. To develop the i-SMR, the government announced an i-SMR research and development (R&D) plan in 2020 and decided to invest 399.2 billion won from 2023 to 2028. The innovative SMR promotion team, a dedicated organization overseeing the i-SMR technology development project, was launched as a nonprofit corporation in Feb. 2023.
The innovative SMR promotion team has set a goal of completing the standard design by the end of 2025, filing for licensing in early 2026, and obtaining standard design approval by 2028. In connection with this, the 11th Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity Supply and Demand includes completing one SMR by 2035, and the current administration has said it will proceed as planned.
However, Korea's SMR commercialization may lag somewhat behind the United States. NuScale Power, a U.S. SMR company, obtained design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2020, the first in the industry, and last year completed additional certification for its 77 MW SMR design. NuScale Power plans to pursue construction licensing in the first half of this year and begin SMR construction in the first half of 2029. Russia is already operating the floating SMR "Akademik Lomonosov," and China is set to start up the world's first land-based SMR, "Linglong One," in the first half of this year.