Hanhyewon, New President Hwang Ju-ho Inaugurated on 22nd... Expectations for Overseas Nuclear Power Plant Sales

Hwang Ju-ho, New President of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] With Hwang Ju-ho, the new president of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), set to take office on the 22nd, expectations are rising that he will bring new momentum to the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's key national agenda of securing overseas nuclear power plant contracts.

According to the nuclear power industry on the 21st, KHNP held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on the 19th, where the appointment of Hwang Ju-ho as the new president was proposed and approved. President Hwang is a leading expert in high-level radioactive waste in Korea and is the first KHNP president in 10 years who is not a former bureaucrat.

The new president previously served as the chairman of the "Spent Nuclear Fuel Public Deliberation Task Force (TF)" under the National Energy Committee's Conflict Management Committee and was appointed chairman of KHNP's Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee in June last year.

After taking office, he will focus on sales efforts to secure overseas nuclear power plant contracts while also handling issues related to high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. KHNP is expected to finalize the contract for the secondary construction project, including the turbine building of the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant in Egypt, as early as this month, and will devote efforts to securing new nuclear power plant construction projects in Poland and the Czech Republic.

In April, KHNP submitted a business proposal to the relevant ministry for the new nuclear power plant construction project in Poland and is actively pursuing contract acquisition activities. It also plans to enter the competition to secure a 1000 MW new nuclear power plant project in the Dukovany region of the Czech Republic.

The new president is also expected to accelerate the development of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology, known as the next-generation nuclear power plant. Previously, President Hwang publicly denied media reports claiming that he serves as an outside director of NuScale, a U.S. SMR technology development company in which Doosan Enerbility has invested shares, stating that "this is not true."

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