• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.701-706
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• 2013

According to the OECD/NEA estimates, nuclear power plants (NPPs), whether with a large reactor or with small modular reactors (SMRs), are competitive with many other electricity generation technologies in a significant number of cases, one of the exceptions being natural gas in the USA with the current level of prices. However, SMRs have particular features and requirements setting conditions for their deployment. This paper presents the preliminary analysis by OECD/NEA of the economics, opportunities, and market for small nuclear reactors.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.57-80
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• 2006

Nuclear technology made a great contribution to the national economy and society by localization of nuclear power plant design, and by stabilization of electricity price, etc. It is very important to conduct the retrospective analysis for the nuclear technology contribution to the national economy and society, but it is more important to conduct prospective analysis for the nuclear technology contribution. The term "technology value" is often used in the prospective analysis to value the result of technology development. There are various definitions of technology value, but generally it means the increment of future revenue or the reduction of future cost by technology development. These technology valuation methods are widely used in various fields (information technology or energy technology, etc). The main objective of this research is to develop valuation methodology that represents unique characteristics of nuclear power technology. The valuation methodology that incorporates market share changes of generation technologies was developed. The technology valuation model which consists of five modules (electricity demand forecast module, technology development module, market share module, electricity generation module, total cost module) to incorporate market share changes of generation technologies was developed. The nuclear power technology value assessed by this technology valuation model was 3 times more than the value assessed by the conventional method. So it was confirmed that it is very important to incorporates market share changes of generation technologies. The valuation results of nuclear power technology in this study can be used as policy data for ensuring the benefits of nuclear power R&D (Research and Development) investment.

• Plant Journal
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.66-73
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• 2009

This study aims to develop a strategy for South Korean companies to penetrate into the global NPP(nuclear power plant) market with their strength as the sixth biggest nuclear power generator in the world. With 20 nuclear plants in commercial operation and 6 more in construction, South Korea has the best technology in construction and operation of NPP. Despite these capabilities as demonstrated on its domestic market, Korean companies' constraint to enter and play a key role in global NPP market would be the lack of experience in overseas NPP projects, original technologies, and diplomatic effectiveness. This study analyzes the competitiveness of Korean standardized nuclear power plant, construction management skills, construction technologies, manufacturing equipment and materials and operation skills. In this research the current status of existing NPP and the forecast of building NPP according to countries was analyzed in order to work out strategies with technology, cost-effectiveness, and diplomatic consideration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.64-69
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• 2024

According to the market research report, the nuclear decommissioning services market is currently experiencing considerable growth, with a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of nearly 13% during the 2020-2024 forecast period. This expansion is primarily fueled by the advancement of Industry 4.0, in conjunction with the emergence of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and 5G. Even though the fact that robots have already been utilized in the nuclear industry, their adoption has been hindered by conservative regulations. However, the nuclear decommissioning market presents an opportunity for the advancement of robotics technology. The British have already invested heavily in encouraging the use of intelligent robots for nuclear decommissioning, and other countries, such as Taiwan, should follow suit. Taiwan's flourishing robotics development industry in manufacturing, logistics, and other domains can be leveraged to introduce advanced robotics in the decommissioning of its nuclear power plants. By doing so, Taiwan can establish itself as a competitive player in the nuclear decommissioning services market for the next two decades.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.133-141
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• 2016

Although construction of any new nuclear power projects had not been launched since mid-1970s until recently in the USA, many new nuclear power plants have been constructed in many countries with the support of their governments mainly as part of their national energy security and electric source diversification policies. For many reasons, the nuclear power industry seemed to reclaim their renaissance from the beginning of this century and the investment in the nuclear power projects draw positive concern from the private financial sector. But the global financial crisis in 2008 and subsequent economic slow-down together with tighter bank credit regulations caused commercial banks, the main source of financing, to lose appetite for investing in new nuclear power projects. But the nuclear power economics shows that the nuclear power is viable in terms of the environmental benefit and long-term average cost compared to other power generation sources. Also doubt about nuclear power safety was much mitigated due to technology development and reinforced safety-related tests and monitoring. Therefore, the prospect for nuclear power market expansion remains positive although there are comparatively big differences among different scenarios. After Korea Electric Power Corp. won the UAE nuclear power project in December of 2009, the competition in nuclear power markets is undergoing huge changes. Competitors backed by the support of their own governments are now entering the market with many aggressive and innovative financing packages to win bids of new nuclear power projects. This report analyzed the nuclear power market prospects, competitive edges of nuclear power, risk management measures, and financing challenges and recommends alternative solutions to promote competitive edges in winning bids of new nuclear power projects.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.90-97
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• 2006

Hydrogen is used as a chemical feedstock in several important industrial processes, including oil refineries and petro-chemical production. But, nowadays hydrogen is focused as energy carrier on the rising of problems such as exhaustion of fossil fuel and environmental pollution. Thermochemical hydrogen production by nuclear energy has potential to efficiently produce large quantities of hydrogen without producing greenhouse gases, and research of nuclear hydrogen, therefore, has been worked with goal to demonstrate commercial production in 2020. The oil refineries and petro-chemical plant are very large, centralized producers and users of industrial hydrogen, and high-potential early market for hydrogen produced by nuclear energy. Therefore, it is essential to investigate and analyze for state of domestic hydrogen market focused on industrial users. Hydrogen market of petro-chemical industry as demand site was investigated and worked for demand forecast of hydrogen in 2020. Also we suggested possible supply plans of nuclear hydrogen considered regional characteristics and then it can be provided basis for determination of optimal capacity of nuclear hydrogen plant in 2020.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.523.2-523
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• 2001

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1654-1666
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• 2024

The goal of this research is to propose a way to maximize small modular reactor (SMR) utilization to gain better market feasibility in support of carbon neutrality. For that purpose, a comprehensive tool was developed, combining off-design thermohydraulic models, economic objective models (levelized cost of electricity, annual profit), non-economic models (saved CO2), a parameter input sampling method (Latin hypercube sampling, LHS), and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Non-dominated Sorting Algorithm-2, NSGA2 method) for optimizing a SMR-combined heat and power cycle (CHP) system design. Considering multiple objectives, it was shown that NSGA2+LHS method can find better optimal solution sets with similar computational costs compared to a conventional weighted sum (WS) method. Out of multiple multi-objective optimal design configurations for a 105 MWe design generation rating, a chosen reference SMR-CHP system resulted in its levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) below $60/MWh for various heat prices, showing economic competitiveness for energy market conditions similar to South Korea. Examined economic feasibility may vary significantly based on CHP heat prices, and extensive consideration of the regional heat market may be required for SMR-CHP regional optimization. Nonetheless, with reasonable heat market prices (e.g. district heating prices comparable to those in Europe and Korea), SMR can still become highly competitive in the energy market if coupled with a CHP system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2007

Energy supply is increasingly showing up as a major issue for electricity supply, transportation, settlement, and process heat industrial supply including hydrogen production. Nuclear power is part of the solution. For electricity supply, as exemplified in Finland and France, the EPR brings an immediate answer; HTR could bring another solution in some specific cases. For other supply, mostly heat, the HTR brings a solution inaccessible to conventional nuclear power plants for very high or even high temperature. As fossil fuels costs increase and efforts to avoid generation of Greenhouse gases are implemented, a market for nuclear generated process heat will be developed. Following active developments in the 80's, HTR have been put on the back burner up to 5 years ago. Light water reactors are widely dominating the nuclear production field today. However, interest in the HTR technology was renewed in the past few years. Several commercial projects are actively promoted, most of them aiming at electricity production. ANTARES is today AREVA's response to the cogeneration market. It distinguishes itself from other concepts with its indirect cycle design powering a combined cycle power plant. Several reasons support this design choice, one of the most important of which is the design flexibility to adapt readily to combined heat and power applications. From the start, AREVA made the choice of such flexibility with the belief that the HTR market is not so much in competition with LWR in the sole electricity market but in the specific added value market of cogeneration and process heat. In view of the volatility of the costs of fossil fuels, AREVA's choice brings to the large industrial heat applications the fuel cost predictability of nuclear fuel with the efficiency of a high temperature heat source tree of Greenhouse gases emissions. The ANTARES module produces 600 MWth which can be split into the required process heat, the remaining power drives an adapted prorated electric plant. Depending on the process heat temperature and power needs, up to 80% of the nuclear heat is converted into useful power. An important feature of the design is the standardization of the heat source, as independent as possible of the process heat application. This should expedite licensing. The essential conditions for success include: ${\bullet}$ Timely adapted licensing process and regulations, codes and standards for such application and design ${\bullet}$ An industry oriented R&D program to meet the technological challenges making the best use of the international collaboration. Gen IV could be the vector ${\bullet}$ Identification of an end user(or a consortium of) willing to fund a FOAK

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.535-535
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• 2001