South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, are expected to declare an enhanced partnership and cooperation for joint participation of the two countries in the global nuclear energy market during a summit meeting on Saturday.

According to diplomacy community sources, Seoul and Washington will announce the expansion of cooperation programs for infrastructure and expert support to boost their joint entry into overseas markets of nuclear power plants based on a common ground that nuclear energy is necessary to achieve the global climate change goals.

The announcement is expected to be made during a summit between the two leaders on the second day of Biden’s three-day visit to South Korea that will start on Friday afternoon. It is Biden’s first Asia trip since his inauguration last year.

Korea’s former Moon Jae-in administration and the U.S. agreed to strengthen cooperation in overseas nuclear power projects during a summit meeting in May last year, but they have not come up with any concrete plans for joint projects since then. Without Korean partners, U.S. companies such as NuScale and Westinghouse won fresh orders in eastern Europe last year.

Since 2009 when Korea won a project to build four APR1400R nuclear reactors (5,600 MW) for the Baraka nuclear power plant in west of Abu Dhabi, Korean companies have not succeeded in earning any new order to build a complete nuclear power plant including a reactor from overseas clients. Washington reportedly kept a low profile toward Seoul because of concerns that nuclear energy has been involved in political strife in Korea.

But as the Yoon administration actively promotes nuclear energy as an inevitable choice to meet the goal of carbon neutrality, Yoon and Biden share the same goal of enhancing the nuclear industry ecosystem.

After the nuclear accident, the United States stopped building new nuclear power plants for over 30 years, effectively losing its independent nuclear power plant construction capability.

In 1979, the U.S. nuclear industry suffered its worst nuclear accident in Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. No more nuclear plants were ordered in the country for more than 30 years following the accident. But Washington is now willing to reclaim its reputation in nuclear engineering.

By Han Ye-kyung, Baek Sang-kyung and Minu Kim

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