Hyundai Engineering to provide design of MMR for Chalk River project in Canada - BusinessKorea
Hyundai Engineering announced on June 6 that it has signed a contract with U.S. energy company USNC to provide a detailed design of a micro modular reactor (MMR) to be built at Chalk River Laboratories, a Canadian nuclear research facility in Deep River, about 180 km north-west of Ottawa, according to BusinessKorea.
The contract was signed at Hyundai Engineering's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul on June 3.
Hyundai Engineering will build a 5MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) together with its partners -- USNC, Canadian construction company PCL, and Canadian engineering company HATCH.
The Chalk River project uses an MMR based on a fourth-generation HTGR. According to the company, reactors that use materials other than water, such as helium gas and sodium, as a coolant are classified as fourth-generation nuclear reactors. Fourth-generation nuclear reactors can be used for various purposes as they do not have the risk of leaking coolant water and produces high-temperature steam compared to light water reactors.
USNC has developed a fourth-generation HTGR MMR that eliminates the possibility of leaking radioactive materials even at 1,800 degrees Celsius by using micro-encapsulation technology for triple-coated nuclear fuel, the company explained. In addition, as it is based on high-temperature gas, there is no risk of coolant leakage. It can produce hotter steam than light water reactors.
Hyundai Engineering and USNC expect that they will be able to start commercial operation of the MMR in 2026.
Based on the Chalk River MMR project, Hyundai Engineering plans to expand the MMR engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business in Canada, the United States, and Poland. Afterwards, it aims to advance into the hydrogen mass production business by developing MMR++ (tentative name), a more advanced version of the existing MMR.
Hyundai Engineering agreed in January this year to invest US$30 million for a stake in USNC.