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KHNP to expand business in Argentinean nuclear energy market

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KHNP to expand business in Argentinean nuclear energy market

 

Cho Seok, right, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power CEO, poses with Sebastian Strada, vice president of Nucleoelectrica Argentina Sociedad Anonima at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, after signing a memorandum of understanding for technological cooperation. / Courtesy of KHNP

By Park Jin-hai

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) is striving to expand its presence in the Argentinean nuclear energy market. The state-run nuclear power operator announced Thursday it had signed a memorandum of understanding for technological cooperation with Nucleoelctrica Argentina SA (NASA).

Under the MOU, the two firms will cooperate in a range of areas including the engineering, construction and operation of nuclear power plants.

KHNP also said it has been in practical talks to participate in the Embalse nuclear power plant project in which NASA has been seeking to extend the plant's operation life. The Korean nuclear power company wants to export its technology that has been proven by the successful extension of the Wolseong unit 1 reactor's life span, which gained 10 more years after its 30-year operation license expired in 2012.

Argentina, as an effort to diversify its energy sources, introduced the Argentine Nuclear Plan, whereby it plans to extend the Embalse nuclear plant's operational life by another 25 years as well as increasing its power-generating capacity by 7 percent.

KHNP has been providing technological advice for the operation of nuclear power plants to NASA since 2008. It dispatched engineers and technicians to the country when NASA began designing the refurbishing project for the aging Embalse plant in 2011. 

KHNP CEO Cho Seok, who is also chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operations, will meet the head of Argentina's energy and mining ministry, Friday, to discuss bilateral cooperation.