Korea, US Agree on $120B Nuclear Reactor Project

The governments of South Korea and the United States have announced plans to sign an agreement on Korean investment in the US, including a joint project to build eight large nuclear reactors. At least two of these reactors will use the APR-1400 design, which has been exported to the UAE and Czech Republic. The reactors are expected to cost around $15 billion each, totaling $120 billion for all eight.

The first project under this agreement is a liquefied natural gas combined-cycle power plant in Encinal, Texas. The initial estimate was $16.8 billion, but discussions with the US led to an increase of over 25% to $22.3 billion. This project has a generating capacity equivalent to about 4.5 APR-1400 reactors.

The agreement also includes Korean investment in other US energy infrastructure projects, such as an Alaska LNG project and carbon capture, utilization and storage projects in the Midwest. To oversee these investments, an I-SPV will be set up, which will channel funds to individual US projects and recover returns.