nuclear-news

Scandal-ridden South Korea wants a piece of the UK nuclear action!

Scandal-hit Korean group makes UK nuclear bid, Ft.com, 19 Nov 13 By Guy ChazanA Korean nuclear company that has been rocked by a domestic safety scandal is close to becoming a major investor in the UK – a development that could hit public confidence in the country’s much-vaunted nuclear renaissance. Korea Electric Power, or Kepco, is in talks to join the NuGen consortium, which has an option to build a reactor near Sellafield in Cumbria……

 Some UK industry figures have expressed concern.

“Why would you want anyone with that kind of safety record?” said one person with knowledge of the NuGen negotiations. He said it risked “damaging the public perception of nuclear in the UK”.

But such concerns are likely to grow as more and more overseas state-owned groups enter the British marketplace. “If major pieces of UK energy infrastructure – not just nuclear – are owned by investors from afar, it’s going to give rise to a level of public disquiet that we haven’t seen so far,” said Nick Pidgeon, head of the Understanding Risk Research Group at Cardiff University.

The NuGen development highlights how reliant the UK is on foreign investors for its nuclear renaissance. Last month, the government struck a deal with EDF of France and two Chinese state energy groups to build the £16bn Hinkley Point C in Somerset, the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation.

South Korea’s nuclear scandal broke last November, when the country’s atomic watchdog said safety certificates for thousands of components procured by Korean reactors over the previous nine years had been forged. Three reactors were shut in the wake of the revelations…..

they had indicted 100 people, including senior executives at state-run energy companies, on corruption charges. These included a former chief executive at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) and a vice-president of Kepco.

The scandal has cast a pall over South Korea’s international ambitions for its nuclear industry. The country aims to become the world’s third-largest exporter of nuclear technology by 2030 and sell 80 reactors worldwide over the next 20 years. A key milestone came in 2009, when it unexpectedly won a $20bn deal to sell nuclear plants to Abu Dhabi…….

The future of NuGen has long been uncertain. The company, which is a 50:50 joint venture between GDF Suez of France and Spain’s Iberdrola, has an option on land on the West Cumbrian coast and plans to develop a nuclear plant there. But the option expires next year, after which the UK government might decide to re-auction the land rights…..http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2c9c490e-510e-11e3-b499-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lDForBsT

November 20, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | marketing, South Korea