Nuclear Energy 4/ South Korea Strengthens its Power Game
Nuclear Energy 4/ South Korea Strengthens its Power Game
  • Korea IT Times
  • 승인 2010.08.30 09:11
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Lee Myung-bak, President of Korea, smiled as he shook hands with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 27, 2009. That was the historic moment South Korea clinched its deal to build the first Arab nuclear power plant. 

The project involves construction of four nuclear power plants, with commercial operation of the first unit scheduled for 2017. The deal covers a broad range of cooperation, including operation and human resource development. It even extends to military cooperation. 

In a news conference broadcast live in South Korea, Lee said with satisfaction, "Now we have become a country that can export nuclear power plants. As a Korean citizen, I feel proud." 

South Koreas price for constructing the nuclear plants is said to be around $20 billion (1.7 trillion yen), about 30 to 40 percent less than the price demanded for rival bids by French and Japan-U.S. consortia. 

According to several people involved with the Japanese bid, "(Winning the contract) was a national priority for South Korea. It had the full backing of the government. They wanted the contract, even if it entailed making a loss. Apparently they wanted to establish a track record of nuclear exports." 

However, Koo Han-mo, vice chairman of the South Korea Atomic Industrial Forum, countered: "The contract price is sufficient to assure an adequate profit." The competitiveness of the bid was greatly enhanced by constraining overall costs through reduced construction time, low labor costs and high capacity factor. 

Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp., which has overall responsibility for the Abu Dhabi nuclear project, emphasized factors other than price. He said the reason was the credibility of the South Korean consortiums total package. 

In the case of the Japan-U.S. and French bids, the plant makers were the front line negotiators. In contrast, government-owned utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) was the single point of contact for the South Korean bid. 

KEPCO put together a consortium including design, construction, reactor making and fuel supply companies. It is said that for UAE, which has no experience operating nuclear power plants, an attractive aspect of KEPCOs bid was that it included operation after the plant is constructed. 

Besides nuclear power plants, South Korea continues in its rush to win orders for construction of buildings and factories in the Middle East. According to a Japanese diplomat, in the UAE, "Japanese companies feel they have a one to nine win-loss ratio in their competition with South Korea." 

The situation is the same as in the electronics industry, where major South Korean companies Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. have greater penetration than Japanese companies in newly industrializing countries. 

South Korea began positioning itself to win nuclear power plant exports at the beginning of the 2000s. Korea boasts a world-best capacity factor--in the 90-percent range--for its own plants, and it has had no serious accidents. This gave it confidence in its technological skills. 

However, it failed in its attempts to sell nuclear power plants to countries such as China, South Africa and Vietnam. The reason was that it lacked core technology and a track record for exports. 

South Koreas nuclear power plants, the first of which began operating in 1978, were based on technology developed in the United States. 

To this day, South Korea still depends on overseas companies for some of its core technology. 

The core technology for the nuclear power plants that it will export to UAE belongs to U.S. company Westinghouse, which is under the Toshiba umbrella. 

China and South Africa required that suppliers own the core technology, so South Korea was ruled out from the start. 

However, UAE, which required cooperation in the entire project and a transfer of know-how, was an opportunity too good to miss for South Korea, which wanted to establish a track record. Kang Kyung-sung, director of the nuclear power plant export promotion division of the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) reflected, "Government and industry were of one mind, and they gave it all they had." 

The next target for South Korea, which aims to export 80 nuclear power plants by 2030, is Turkey. The two governments have signed a memorandum of understanding concerning a nuclear power project on the Black Sea coast. 

"At the earliest we could conclude a contract by the end of next year," an MKE official said confidently. 


source: www.asahi.com

댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트