Doosan Enerbility Teams Up with Amazon in the U.S. to Accelerate SMR Projects, Strengthening Korea-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation

Supplying Power to AI Data Centers
Collaboration on a 5GW Project as Part of AWS Investment
Commitment to Nuclear and SMR Cooperation with Fermi America

Doosan Enerbility is emerging as a key pillar of Korea-U.S. energy cooperation in both large-scale nuclear power plants and Small Modular Reactor (SMR) projects, as it continues to pursue nuclear partnerships with global companies in the United States.

On August 26, Doosan Enerbility announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for SMR business cooperation with Amazon Web Services (AWS), X-Energy, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). The agreement was signed on August 25 (local time) in Washington D.C., immediately following the Korea-U.S. Business Roundtable, with Shannon Kellogg, Vice President of AWS; Clay Sell, CEO of X-Energy; Juho Hwang, President of KHNP; and Jiwon Park, Chairman of Doosan Enerbility, in attendance.

Kim Jungkwan, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy (from left), Park Jiwon, Chairman of Doosan Enerbility, Hwang Juho, President of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Clay Sell, CEO of X-Energy, Shannon Kellogg, Vice President of AWS, and Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, are posing for a commemorative photo at the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for SMR business cooperation held on the 25th (local time) in Washington D.C., USA, immediately after the Korea-U.S. Business Roundtable. Doosan Enerbility

Under the agreement, the four companies will engage in comprehensive cooperation, ranging from SMR design, construction, and operation to supply chain development, investment, and market expansion. In particular, they plan to work closely together on a 5GW-scale SMR commercialization project in which AWS is investing 700 million dollars (approximately 970 billion won). This project involves 64 SMRs, each with a capacity of 80MW, currently being developed by X-Energy, and these reactors are scheduled to supply power to AWS artificial intelligence (AI) data centers by 2039.

Chairman Jiwon Park stated, "With the support of both governments, we are now able to accelerate the commercialization of SMRs," adding, "We will do our best to make this a model case of Korea-U.S. energy cooperation based on Doosan's proven manufacturing capabilities."

Doosan Enerbility had already invested in X-Energy in 2023, establishing a partnership as a key supplier of core equipment. X-Energy, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is carrying out its first-of-a-kind (FOAK) project with Dow Chemical in Texas. A FOAK project refers to a demonstration nuclear power plant built for the first time with a particular design, serving to verify its potential for future commercialization. The DOE is supporting the demonstration project with a total investment of 1.2 billion dollars.

On the same day, Doosan Enerbility also signed an MOU for nuclear power and SMR cooperation with U.S. energy developer Fermi America. Fermi America, co-founded by former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, is pursuing the "AI Campus Project" in Texas. This project aims to build a power infrastructure with a total capacity of up to 11GW by combining four large-scale nuclear power plants (totaling 4GW), SMRs, gas combined cycle power plants, solar power, and a large-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and to establish the world’s largest AI data center.

With these consecutive agreements, Doosan Enerbility has accelerated its entry into the U.S. nuclear power and SMR market. Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation is expected to become a core model of an "energy alliance" that extends to renewable energy and AI power infrastructure.

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