SK Innovation Expands Natrium SMR Cooperations with TerraPower

Дата публикации: 14-08-2026 21:40:00

SK Innovation is partnering with TerraPower, a U.S. next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) company, to jointly enter the global SMR market. By joining hands with TerraPower, a leading company in the SMR field founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2008, the strategic move aims to secure lea

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SK Innovation is partnering with TerraPower, a U.S. next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) company, to jointly enter the global SMR market. By joining hands with TerraPower, a leading company in the SMR field founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2008, the strategic move aims to secure leadership by preempting major global markets including South Korea, the United States, and Asia.

Choo Hyoung-wook, CEO of SK Innovation, and Chris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower, signed an agreement for cooperation in the Natrium SMR business and entry into the global market for next-generation SMRs at an undisclosed location in Seoul on Aug. 14. The agreement contains cooperation measures including expanding SK Innovation’s participation in the SMR demonstration reactor and subsequent commercial projects that TerraPower is building in the United States, measures to expand the utilization of the domestic SMR supply chain, developing the domestic ‘Natrium SMR’ business, and jointly discovering global SMR projects.

With this agreement, SK Innovation will expand its role beyond being a strategic investor in TerraPower to become an operator directly participating in SMR business development and projects. Previously in 2022, SK Inc. and SK Innovation jointly invested a total of $250 million TerraPower to become the second-largest shareholders, and in April of 2023, SK Innovation, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, and TerraPower signed a memorandum of understanding for the development and commercialization of next-generation SMRs.

SK Innovation is expanding business cooperation on the next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) ‘Natrium’ with U.S. nuclear power company TerraPower. The plan is to directly participate in the demonstration and commercial projects underway in the United States, and domestically review the possibility of establishing a Korean business model, ‘K-Natrium,’ and a supply chain to target large-scale power demand markets such as AI data centers.

The biggest characteristic of TerraPower’s ‘Natrium SMR’ is that it uses liquid sodium as a coolant, unlike light-water reactor-type nuclear power plants that use water as a coolant. It is based on the so-called ‘Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR).’ Nuclear power plants boil water with high heat of hundreds of degrees generated during the nuclear fission process to create steam, and use this steam to turn a turbine to produce electricity.

Existing light-water reactor nuclear power plants must maintain high pressure to prevent water from boiling in an operating environment of over 300 degrees, but liquid sodium does not boil even at a high temperature of 880 degrees, making it safe to operate in an environment close to normal atmospheric pressure.

SK Innovation said, “By storing part of the heat as molten salt in a reactor that uses sodium instead of water as a coolant, the stored heat can be drawn out together at a time when power demand surges to significantly increase power generation in an instant,” adding, “It is also suitable for large-scale demand sources where power usage spikes momentarily, such as data centers or semiconductor industrial complexes.”

‘Kemmerer Unit 1,’ which applies the Natrium SMR, received the first commercial advanced reactor construction permit in the country from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last March and is under construction in Wyoming. The goal is commercial operation in 2031. Based on the experience accumulated in this demonstration project, SK Innovation plans to review the domestic applicability of the Korean Natrium SMR business model ‘K-Natrium’, while also pursuing the expansion of SMR project development and operation businesses in Asian markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Connection with the domestic nuclear power industry is also being reviewed. The company plans to examine ways to utilize the core equipment supply chain so that domestic research and design institutes and nuclear power and power generation equipment companies can participate in the Natrium SMR business, and also review whether a Korean-style design and project execution system can be established.

Choo Hyoung-wook, CEO, said, “While communicating closely with TerraPower, we will materialize the promotion direction of the K-Natrium business model and expand our entry into the global market by securing business development and operational capabilities through participation in U.S. projects in the future.”

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and TerraPower Chairman of the Board Bill Gates also attended the dinner held after the meeting of the two companies’ management on this day. The two sides discussed responses to power demand according to the increase in AI data centers, the development direction of the next-generation nuclear power industry, and the possibility of nuclear power cooperation between South Korea and the United States.

Meanwhile, Minister Kim Jeong-gwan met with Chairman Gates prior to the agreement ceremony to discuss ways to expand the participation of South Korean companies in TerraPower’s SMR business. Minister Kim requested, “To secure the economic feasibility of SMRs, ‘standardized dissemination’ combining TerraPower’s standard design and South Korea’s highly reliable mass production supply chain is necessary,” adding, “Please take an interest so that South Korea, which has built a foundry-level nuclear power plant manufacturing and construction ecosystem through the construction and operation of domestic and overseas nuclear power plants over the past 50 years, can become TerraPower’s production base, and South Korean companies can become the core supply chain.” 

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