South Korea has signed a $2.25 billion deal with a Russian state-run nuclear energy company to provide components for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.
South Korea’s government said the contract between the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power and ASE requires the South Koreans to provide turbine-related equipment and construction work for the plant that is being built in Dabaa, about 130 kilometres north-west of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.
ASE is a subsidiary of Rosatom, a state-owned Russian nuclear conglomerate.
A senior aide of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the negotiations were slowed by “unexpected variables,” mainly Russia’s war on Ukraine and the US-led sanctions campaign against Moscow over its aggression.
Choi Sang-mok, Mr Yoon’s senior secretary for economic affairs, said South Korea provided an explanation to the United States in advance about its plans to participate in the Dabaa project and that the allies will maintain close consultation as the work proceeds.
He said there is no possibility that the technologies being supplied by South Korea to the project would clash with international sanctions against Russia.
“Any kind of issue can be met by various uncertainties, but those have all been resolved as of now, and that’s why we were able to finalise the agreement,” he said.
Mr Yoon’s office said the participation in the Dabaa project is the country’s biggest export of nuclear power technology since 2009, when a South Korean-led consortium won a $20 billion contract to build nuclear power reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, has pledged to boost South Korean exports of nuclear power technology, which he insists were dented under the policies of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who sought to reduce the country’s domestic dependence on nuclear energy.
Mr Yoon’s office expressed hope that South Korea’s participation in the Dabaa project would help the country gain a foothold in future nuclear projects across Africa and also improve its chances to export to countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power had been engaging in negotiations with ASE as the preferred bidder for the turbine-related project since December, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Go Myong-hyun, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said the deal would not have been possible without an export approval by the United States as the components provided by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power are likely to include US-originated technology.
Current sanctions against Moscow also do not include specific restrictions related to nuclear energy and the Biden administration would have no interest in disrupting a crucial project for Egypt, which it sees as a key partner in the region, Mr Go said.
In a statement on Facebook Mr Yoon said the deal reaffirms South Korea’s “advanced technology and safeness and strong supply chains” in the nuclear power industry. His government has set a goal of exporting 10 nuclear power reactors by 2030.
