April 26, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] State-run utility firm Korea Electric Power Corp. is considering bidding for a 15 billion pound (US$18.76 billion) nuclear power project in a consortium led by NuGen, a joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba and France’s Engie, Chosun Ilbo reported on Feb. 9.

The Moorside Nuclear Power Station Project aims to build three nuclear reactors in Cumbria, UK, by 2025. The NuGen consortium has led the project after winning an order from the British government in 2013. 

But the project fell into a crisis recently as Toshiba, which owns a 60 percent stake in NuGen, is considering leaving the consortium following multibillion dollar losses in its nuclear power business in the US.

The report said KEPCO has been in talks with NuGen since the end of 2015 to join the project but with little progress in the talks. 

“Now the situation has reversed,” a KEPCO official was quoted as saying. “Toshiba is wooing KEPCO to join.”

Toshiba’s stake in the project is estimated at about 150 billion won (US$130.6 million).

If KEPCO inks the deal, this will mark the first global nuclear power project order for Korea since 2009 when it won a nuclear reactor deal from UAE.

A total of 164 reactors will be built globally by 2030 and 70 of them will go for bidding, according to the World Nuclear Association.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)