South Korea will provide KRW150bn ($103.1m) in financial support this year to businesses in the nuclear power plant industry to promote sustainable development of this industry sector, the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced.
The fund will be used to support the local NPP ecosystem with an in order to strengthen the competitiveness of Korean companies, the Ministry added, noting growing demands for electricity sparked by a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector and calls for carbon neutrality.
The Ministry said it had increased this year’s budget by KRW50bn compared with 2024 in response to increasing demand for investment in the sector reflecting nuclear power plant exports in recent years and the move to build new NPPs in Korea.
In 2022, Korean companies won contracts worth more than $3bn to participate in construction of Egypt’s El Dabaa NPP. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) in 2023 won a KRW260bn deal to build a Tritium Removal Facility in Romania. In 2024, a South Korean consortium led by KHNP was selected as the preferred bidder for the construction of up to four NPP units in the Czech Republic. Korea is also working to construct units 3&4 at the Shin Hanul NPP by 2032 and 2033.
