Hyundai Engineering & Construction said on the 18th that it signed a basic agreement with U.S. nuclear corporations TerraPower and secured priority rights to participate in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for up to eight follow-on units of the Natrium® nuclear power plant.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction said on the 18th that, with CEO Lee Han-woo of Hyundai Engineering & Construction and TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque and other executives from both companies in attendance, it signed a framework agreement for the execution of the Natrium nuclear power plant project.
Under this agreement, the two companies will expand cooperation in the nuclear power sector and jointly identify new business opportunities. Hyundai Engineering & Construction secured priority rights to participate as an EPC partner for up to eight follow-on Natrium units that TerraPower is additionally planning.
The two companies also plan to discuss construction and joint sales strategies for the follow-on project to Kemmerer Unit 1, which is under construction in Wyoming.
TerraPower is developing fourth-generation nuclear power technology based on a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) that uses liquid sodium as a coolant. It is currently pursuing the 345MW Kemmerer Unit 1 project in Wyoming.
The Natrium plant is designed to link the reactor with an energy storage system to adjust output according to power demand. TerraPower is expanding related projects to respond to electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and others.
Earlier, on the 14th in Seoul, Hyundai Engineering & Construction CEO Lee Han-woo, TerraPower board chair Bill Gates, CEO Chris Levesque, and HD Hyundai Chair Chung Ki-sun met to discuss commercialization of the Natrium plant and cooperation on additional projects.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction, TerraPower and HD Hyundai signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for next-generation nuclear power projects in May. Hyundai Engineering & Construction is cooperating on EPC, and HD Hyundai is focusing on manufacturing primary nuclear equipment.
A Hyundai Engineering & Construction official said, "This agreement is meaningful in that it laid the foundation to participate in next-generation nuclear power projects by combining TerraPower's nuclear technology with Hyundai Engineering & Construction's EPC capabilities," adding, "We will expand commercialization of the Natrium plant and cooperation on global projects."
Meanwhile, Hyundai Engineering & Construction is participating in large nuclear power plants, Small Modular Reactor (SMR) projects and nuclear decommissioning, and expanded its business scope to the sodium-cooled fast reactor field through this agreement.