[Sponsored Report] Hyundai E&C places its chips on nuclear

Shin-kori Nuclear Power Plant, units three and four, which will be built with the largest capacity of 1.4 million KW, is under construction. The plant is greatly improved over its predecessors, featuring an ecofriendly design and safety mechanisms.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction has decided on nuclear power as the new force of development.

To cope with climate change, the only realistic energy source is nuclear power.

There are many alternative energies, such as wind and solar, but the technology is still in nascent form and thus most useful as an assisting energy or potential resource in the long term. Recently, as the understanding for nuclear energy has become wider and as the world is recognizing nuclear power as a controllable energy, the nuclear power construction market will expand more.

Already 300-400 nuclear power plant constructions have been scheduled by 2030 and this is expected to increase. Construction costs equal an enormous amount, piling up to 900 trillion to 1,200 trillion won, though the human benefit is incalculable.

The nuclear power plants constructed by Hyundai Engineering & Construction are in charge of 62.1 percent of the total nuclear power output of Korea. As of January 2012, Hyundai Engineering & Construction constructed 13 nuclear power plants among 21 power plants.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction is placing safety in first priority in constructing nuclear power plants, drawing on its 40 year experience with nuclear power plant technology. The fact that there hasn’t been a single accident in nuclear power plants constructed by Hyundai Engineering & Construction proves this fact.

In 1998 the company successfully replaced the steam generator of Kori Nuclear Power Plant No. 1. In 2004, its high technology in nuclear containment vessel incision and resealing, as well as general nuclear maintenance and improvement skills, were acknowledged, winning them the nuclear safety mark of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

In addition, based on their experience building the “Hanaro” research-purpose nuclear reactor, the company is contributing widely in the nuclear research field of pyroprocessing.

In radioactive waste, Hyundai Engineering & Construction has the contract for Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant’s radioactive waste dry storage container construction and is planning to participate in the underground repository project for radioactive waste disposals in order to expand its business field.

By Lee Ji-hyun [concordia@joongang.co.kr]