Ministry of SMEs and Startups Launches Full-Scale R&D Support for SME Nuclear Power Ecosystem Restoration

Minister Lee Young, Ministry of SMEs and Startups [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 12th that it held the ‘Nuclear Power Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Technology Innovation Meeting’ at the Seoul SME DMC Tower, attended by 11 officials from public institutions, large corporations, and SMEs in the nuclear power sector.

This meeting was arranged as a follow-up to the ‘Support Measures for Nuclear Power SMEs’ announced on the 22nd of last month, to discuss the R&D promotion plan for nuclear power SMEs together with the industry.

At the meeting, through the presentation of the ‘Nuclear Power Industry Status Survey’ by the Korea Nuclear Industry Association, the shortage of equipment-supplying SMEs was shared, and the difficulties faced by both large corporations and SMEs were comprehensively heard.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups recognized the urgent need for cooperation among the government, large corporations, and SMEs to restore the nuclear power ecosystem and secure future competitiveness, and announced the nuclear power SME R&D promotion plan with the basic directions of ▲ ecosystem restoration ▲ securing future competitiveness ▲ strengthening win-win cooperation.

In August this year, a project announcement worth 21.5 billion KRW will be promoted by selecting areas urgently needing ecosystem restoration. By the end of the year, a mid- to long-term plan worth about 150 billion KRW will be established until 2027, and based on this, a nuclear power specialized R&D will be newly established and supported from 2023.

For concrete implementation, a ‘Nuclear Power SME Technology Innovation Research Group (hereafter Research Group)’ composed of experts from industry, academia, and research institutes in the nuclear power field was launched and will operate in two phases until the end of this year.

The first phase aims to derive the target technology fields and items for support before the August project announcement. The second phase plans to conclude activities by presenting systematic support measures such as the mid- to long-term technology development roadmap (2023?2027) to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups by December.

Discussions on win-win cooperation also continued. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) plans to jointly establish an additional 7.2 billion KRW (2.4 billion KRW annually) joint investment-type technology development fund by 2024 with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to support technology development for SME partner companies such as reactor inspection equipment. In addition, various opinions from attendees were raised, including the operation of consultative bodies for cooperation between the Ministry and demand companies.

Jang Daegyo, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “For the efficient promotion of nuclear power ecosystem restoration, it is very important that demand companies such as KHNP and Doosan provide nuclear power parts demand information, and the Ministry supports SMEs capable of developing and supplying these parts through an organic cooperative relationship.” He added, “We will strive to achieve tangible results by referring to the various opinions discussed today.”

Following the meeting, the ‘1st Meeting of the Nuclear Power SME Technology Innovation Research Group’ was held, and the Research Group’s operation plan and methods for deriving this year’s key support items were discussed in depth.

Research Group Leader Yeom Hakgi stated, “In the nuclear power industry ecosystem market environment where safety is the top priority, SMEs find it difficult to secure continuous market competitiveness or maintain stability through independent technology development alone.” He added, “Going forward, the Research Group will do its utmost to ensure that SME technology development achieves practical results in the market.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.