Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) held a session to unveil the final outcomes of “Angel Tasks” at the KHNP Central Research Institute on Dec. 11.
The Angel Task is a new regime KHNP inaugurated to explore innovative ideas and challenging research tasks.
KHNP staff members have devoted themselves to researching and developing tasks with greater spill-over effects, such as next-generation nuclear power technologies to help solve future energy issues.
KHNP has designated a combined seven tasks to launch research projects for, including reducing construction costs, the building an AIoT environment, long-term fault-free nuclear fuel, and nuclear waste reduction.
President Shin Ho-cheol of the KHNP Central Research Institute, and researchers attend a session to announce outcomes of “Angel Tasks” at the research institute on Dec. 11.
The power company has provided support so that staff members can devote themselves to research without the burden of failure.
The session looked into the research outcomes of the seven tasks.
It also provided a aa glimpse into KHNP’s future technology competitiveness and nuclear power R&D potential.
In an encouraging speech, Jang Hee-seung, head of the Quality Technology Division at KHNP, said, “I’m sure that the combining of small steps by the seven teams will be first steps of a leap forward, and KHNP plans to further strengthen the R&D ecosystem to raise future values of nuclear power technology by continuously supporting innovative R&ED tasks.”
President Shin Ho-cheol of the KHNP Central Research Institute, the brainchild of the Angel Task, said, “I hope the new possibilities of next-generation nuclear power technology can be explored through the Angel Tasks and an awareness that challenging and creativity could be spread, and we plan to further upgrade future nuclear power technology competitiveness encompassing nuclear power safety, economical feasibility and sustainability through the unveiling of the outcomes.”
KHNP Spearheads National Energy Paradigm Shift
As a robust climate change response and energy security emerge as national tasks, the small modular reactor (SMR) has been establishing itself as a technology that could lead to a paradigm shift in the energy sector.
In particular, the SMR has been noted for its greater safety, economic feasibility and flexibility compared to large-zed nuclear power units, fossil fuel and renewal energy power.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power has been spearheading the national energy paradigm shift by expanding a business model, titled “SMR Smart Net-zero City,” designed to integrate and solve carbon neutrality and power stability among cities and industrial complexes.
The SMR boasts greater stability, economic feasibility and flexibility comparted to the conventional large-sized nuclear power, fossil fuel and renewable energy power.
The development of safety technology is an integral foundation for raising public receptivity.
The SMR has a potential of easing distance limitations between cities and industrial complexes, differing from those of the conventional large-sized nuclear power units.
Generally, large-sized nuclear power units need to be located at a distance quite off densely populated areas, but the SMR could be considered to have greater stability, enough to be installed at a distance of 400 meters to 500 meters.
The latter can serve as a distributed power source since it can generation power at places near power demand sites.
In the economic feasibility aspect, the improvement of the SMR is outstanding.
The conventional large-sized nuclear power requires a long construction period and initial burdensome costs — factors raising investment dangers.
But the SMR has managed to reduce a construction period due to the modular and standardized factory production method and reduce construction costs.
The SMR modules can be produced at a factory before they are assembled at a site, so process management is easy and costs are predictable.
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