HD Hyundai will expand cooperation with TerraPower and Hyundai Engineering & Construction to target the U.S. small modular reactor (SMR) market. The companies will flesh out the supply chain for major equipment for sodium-cooled reactors and push investment in production facilities, aiming to supply two to three reactor vessels a year.
Chung Ki-sun, chairman of HD Hyundai, met on the 14th in Seoul with TerraPower founder and chairman Bill Gates, TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction CEO Lee Han-woo to discuss cooperation plans for next-generation reactor projects. It was about three months after the three companies signed a "three-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation on next-generation sodium-cooled reactor projects" in May.
They reviewed the cooperation carried out so far and discussed ways to work together on manufacturing and supply chains and on EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) to commercialize land-based reactors.
Chairman Chung said, "Based on a cooperative framework that encompasses technology, manufacturing, and EPC, we expect to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation reactors," adding, "We will actively respond to rising SMR power generation demand through in-house technology development and collaboration with global corporations."
In the MOU signed in May, the three companies divided up roles for commercializing the next-generation SMR, the "sodium-cooled reactor," based on a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). TerraPower will provide sodium technology, HD Hyundai will handle major equipment manufacturing, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction will take charge of EPC.
Since the agreement, HD Hyundai has specified the scope of supply chain cooperation with TerraPower for manufacturing major equipment. Aiming to supply two to three reactor vessels annually, the company plans to accelerate investment in production facilities ahead of commercialization.
HD Hyundai is moving to establish a production system for the U.S. SMR market because power demand is expected to rise with the replacement of aging nuclear plants and the expansion of data centers. The United States, with about 95 GW, is the world's largest nuclear power market and accounts for about 25% of global nuclear capacity. Many plants began operation in the 1970s and have aged, so replacement demand is expected to grow. Recently, soaring power demand in the United States due to more data centers has also increased demand for nuclear power generation.
Cooperation between HD Hyundai and TerraPower began with HD Hyundai's investment in TerraPower in 2022. In December 2024, HD Hyundai won an order from TerraPower to manufacture cylindrical reactor vessels to be installed in the sodium-cooled reactor and has been producing them. In March last year, the companies signed a "strategic agreement to expand the manufacturing supply chain for the commercialization of sodium-cooled reactors" and, for about a year, reviewed manufacturing feasibility, price competitiveness, and delivery schedules for the sodium-cooled reactor.
Based on this cooperation, HD Hyundai was designated in May as the preferred bidder to manufacture and supply key facilities for major equipment of TerraPower's sodium-cooled reactor.