Officials from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) and USA-based engineering firm Sargent & Lundy, including KHNP President Chung Jae-hoon, gesture after the two companies signed a deal to cooperate in a Romanian nuclear power project in Bucharest, Romania, on Jan. 24. (Photo: KHNP)

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) won a 1 billion order to supply nuclear incore instrumentation amplifier and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) filters to the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant from Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica (SNN) of Romania.

KHNP was selected as the successful bidder of an international bidding to supply the nuclear incore instrumentation amplifier and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) filters on Jan. 26.

The feat represents the first time in which KHNP succeeded in localizing nuclear parts and components through R&D collaboration with SMEs, and then exploring them overseas.

The items will be used for Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 & 2.

Real Gain, a Korean SME, will be responsible for the design and production of the equipment and component, while KHNP will be charged with quality management and equipment verification.

The items are localized as a collaboration project between KHNP and SMEs, and they are used for Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 to 4, the same pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) as those of Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant and their performances and safety have been verified.

The supplies are expected to be supplied on a continued basis since they are supposed to be replaced at an interval of periodic time.

The winning order is expected to have a positive effect on projects related to tritium removal facilities and the construction of a waste storage tank in Romania, for which KHNP is seeking to participate in.

KHNP President Chung Jae-hoon said the power company’s winning order is an exemplary practice in which KHNP has teamed up with Korean nuclear equipment and materials producers in exploring overseas sales markets through market exploration teams with cooperative SMEs under the stewardship of President Chung.

Last September, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a meeting to discuss a nuclear power export strategy and came up with steps to boost life-cycle exports of nuclear power.

Among the measures announced by the ministry are strategies to expand exports to the entire life cycle of nuclear power and make them export industries through the enhancing of mid-size and SMEs’ export capabilities.

KHNP will devote itself to providing full solutions ranging from exploration of demand to technology development and overseas export for shared growth and collaboration with Korean SMEs down the road.

KHNP President Chung said with the winning order, KHNP is expected to reap additional achievements in the United States, Eastern Europe, and East Asia. KHNP will provide full support to SMEs’ technology development and market exploration that more smaller companies can enter foreign markets, he added.

KHNP Among Preferred Negotiators for Strategic Investments for Bulgarian NPP

KHNP made it onto the short-list of preferred negotiators for strategic investments to resume the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria last Dec. 19.

AEP of Russia launched a project to build the Belene Nuclear Power Plant with two 100MW VVER reactors in 1987, but it was halted due to economic reasons in 1991.

A deal was signed with ASE of Russia as a main contractor in 2006, but the project was suspended once again due to a failure to attract investors in 2012.

The progress of the project stands at 40 percent and the equipment supply rate is 80 percent complete.

Seven companies participated in a bid to attract strategic investors for the resumption of the project, offered by the Bulgarian government in May 2015, and recently KHNP was selected as preferred negotiators along with Russia’s Rosatom and CNNC, China’s state-run nuclear power plant company.