Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-sqlfs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-09T00:51:27.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

South Korea's Global Nuclear Ambitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

David Adam Stott
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

December 2009 was an historic month for the South Korean nuclear industry. In winning two bidding competitions to design and construct nuclear power plants in the Middle East, it dramatically signalled its arrival as an international force in the sector. The opening announcement concerned Jordan's first nuclear research reactor whilst the second, and most important, was a massive contract to build at least four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The South Korean team was one of nine original bidders and beat off competition from France and an American-Japanese consortium from the final shortlist of three. As the USA, France and Japan account for almost half of the world's total nuclear reactors, this was an impressive achievement, especially since it will be the first nuclear power plant that Korea has exported.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 12 , March 2010 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010

References

Notes

[1] Christian Oliver, ‘S Korea eyes wider nuclear exports’, Financial Times, January 22, 2010.

[2] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ‘Global Uranium Resources to Meet Projected Demand’, June 2, 2006.

[3] World Nuclear Association, ‘Nuclear Power in the United Arab Emirates’, June 2009.

[4] Global Research figures, part of Kuwait's Global Investment House. Link.

[5] Nevertheless, the UAE repeatedly asked the other two consortia to reduce their prices to make them more competitive with the South Korean bid. This seems to suggest that the UAE was trying to favour the other two bidders, not wholly surprising given the close ties the UAE has had with both France and the United States.

[6] Taylor Luck, ‘Nuclear power could provide 60% of Kingdom's energy needs by 2035‘, Jordan Times, July 9, 2009.

[7] Kim Tong-hyung, ‘Korea to Build Nuclear Research Reactor in Jordan’, Korea Times, December 4, 2009.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Taylor Luck, ‘Nuclear energy to supply Jordan desalination plants’, Jordan Times, May 22, 2009

[10] Taylor Luck, ‘Nuclear power could provide 60% of Kingdom's energy needs by 2035‘, Jordan Times, July 9, 2009.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Christian Oliver, ‘S Korea eyes wider nuclear exports’, Financial Times, January 22, 2010.

[13] World Nuclear News, ‘South Korea seeks to boost reactor exports’, January 13, 2010.

[14] Richard Tanter, Arabella Imhoff and David Von Hippel, ‘Nuclear Power, Risk Management and Democratic Accountability in Indonesia’, Austral Policy Forum 09-22A, December 7, 2009.

[15] Tamsin Carlisle, ‘South Korean companies strike it rich in UAE’, The National (Abu Dhabi), March 2, 2010.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Chris Stanton, ‘UAE to sign nuclear pact with S Korea’, The National (Abu Dhabi) June 21, 2009.