S Korean consortium wins bid to upgrade Netherlands' experimental reactor

2014-06-24 12:00

A South Korean consortium has won a bid to upgrade a research nuclear reactor and

build a new research facility in the Netherlands, the science ministry said Tuesday.

The project marks the first export of South Korea's nuclear reactor technology to Europe.

Under the 19 million euro (US$25.8 million) deal, the consortium led by the state-run

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) will upgrade the experimental reactor at

Delft University of Technology to increase the reactor's capacity from the current

2 megawatts to 3 megawatts, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

It will also build a new cold neutron research facility by the end of 2017.

"The successful bidding by the KAERI-led consortium has a special meaning as it came

after a fierce competition against international consortia led by France's AREVA,

Germany's NUKEM and Russia's NIEKET," the ministry said.

"The market for the country's nuclear technology has so far been limited to the

Middle East and Southeast Asia despite its continued efforts to develop and further advance

its own technologies," it said.

"But winning the Netherlands' project has confirmed the country's nuclear technology is

one of the world's best as it marked the first export of its technology to Europe,

where world-class research reactors such as the one in France's Institut Laue Langevin and

Germany's FRM-2 already exist," it added.

     SEJONG, June 24 (Yonhap)

     bdk@yna.co.kr