A senior executive of HD Hyundai, South Korea’s shipbuilding business, held talks in Seoul with Bill Gates on cooperation in small modular reactor (SMR) projects pursued by the U.S. billionaire’s company TerraPower.
HD Hyundai executive vice chairman Chung Kisun met with TerraPower leadership, including chairman and founder Bill Gates in Seoul, Korea to discuss progress on the supply chain expansion and the commercialization of Natrium reactors, the company said in a press release.
Under a deal signed between the two partners, HD Hyundai agreed to supply TerraPower with the reactor vessels for the first Natrium reactor.
“HD Hyundai is not only a premier, globally recognized shipbuilder but also a key supply chain partner with deep manufacturing expertise which will play an important role in the global nuclear industry,” said Chris Levesque, president and CEO of TerraPower.
This meeting comes five months after their initial talks in the United States in March. At that time, HD Hyundai and TerraPower signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand the global manufacturing supply chain for the commercialization of TerraPower’s Natrium reactors – a generation IV small modular reactor (SMR) sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) design with built-in energy storage.
“Next-generation SMR technology is a core solution for realizing sustainable future energy. Our partnership with TerraPower will serve as a turning point in building a global nuclear supply chain and advancing the transition in the energy paradigm,” commented HD Hyundai executive vice chairman Chung Kisun.
Meanwhile, HD Hyundai is also stepping up efforts to develop nuclear-powered vessels, including its work with TerraPower on molten salt reactor (MSR) technologies for potential applications in the shipbuilding sector.
