Korea Power Engineering Co. (KOPEC) concluded a contract with Bechtel to provide the U.S. company with engineering services for design of a power plant in Maryland on Aug. 3. Under the contract, KOPEC will dispatch its technicians to the headquarters of Bechtel and they will participate in the design work of a nuclear power plant and relevant facilities to be built in the United States. As an initial step, KOPEC dispatched 26 technicians on July 28 and sent 20 to 30 specialists additionally before the end of this year. At present, U.S. enterprises are moving to resume the construction of nuclear power plants in order to reduce the U.S. dependency on petroleum amid high oil prices. Accordingly, the prospect for Korea's exports of design technology and services related to nuclear power plant to the United States is becoming bright. Ahead of this, KOPEC signed a NuStart project technology service contract with Westinghouse in October last year and dispatched its 80 technicians to the U.S. company for the general design of the U.S. company's AP 1000 nuclear reactor and other facilities. In addition, KOPEC also dispatched its technicians to Burns & McDonnell International (BMI) to offer its up-to-date design and engineering services in the thermal power generation sector. KOPEC President Lim Sung-chun said, "The signing with Bechtel has a significant meaning in which Korea's plant design technology has been highly appraised by the global market. We will continue expanding overseas advancement projects through strengthening of infrastructure ad strategic business development."