The Donald Trump administration is reportedly planning to increase nuclear power capacity to four times the current level by 2050 to meet electricity demand. With the United States moving toward expanding nuclear power, following Europe, new business opportunities have opened up for the South Korean nuclear power industry.
The New York Times (NYT) obtained a draft executive order prepared by the Trump administration on the 9th (local time) and reported that "Trump is considering several executive orders aimed at accelerating nuclear power construction" and has set a target to increase nuclear power capacity from the current 100 gigawatts (GW) to 400 GW by 2050. 1 GW is enough to supply electricity to approximately 1 million households.
President Trump noted shortly after taking office in January that there was a shortage of power to supply data centers that would be the foundation of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. To address this, he pushed for the easing of regulations on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and has now turned his attention to the expansion of nuclear power.
The Trump administration's move to expand nuclear power is partly driven by concerns that the United States is lagging behind Russia and China in nuclear technology. The United States has the world's leading nuclear design technology and is the largest nuclear power holder in the world, operating 94 reactors. However, since the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979, no new reactors have been built, resulting in a decline in construction capacity.
The draft executive order included the statement, "As the United States has not developed new reactor designs, the majority of reactors installed in the last decade are based on Russian and Chinese designs. 87% of the reactors installed worldwide since 2017 are based on Russian and Chinese designs," and it stated that "this trend cannot continue, and the United States must act swiftly and decisively to resume a nuclear renaissance."
The United States' move to expand nuclear power presents an opportunity for South Korea. This is because the likelihood of the United States collaborating with political adversaries Russia and China is low. An industry official said, "There is an opportunity for construction and engineering corporations related to nuclear power. If the United States embarks on additional nuclear construction, overseas nuclear project operators such as Westinghouse may request collaboration with South Korean corporations."
Jeong Yong-hoon, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, also commented, "The South Korean nuclear power industry has both capability and supply chains, and is a country that constructs and operates nuclear power plants," indicating confidence in its competitiveness. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the construction cost of South Korean nuclear power plants is $3,571 per kilowatt (kW), significantly lower than that of the United States ($5,833) and France ($7,931).