Czech nuclear power plant secret letter upgraded, Barakah nuclear power plant 25% ‘additional’ Yoon Seok-yeol ‘contractor’
In the operation to win the Czech nuclear power plant order, President Yoon Seok-yeol appears to be an undisclosed contractor as the person who delivered the secret letter was the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and the additional person who delivered the letter was promoted to the head of the Presidential Policy Office.
On the 17th, the Czech government announced Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Plant as the preferred negotiating partner for a new nuclear power plant, but prior to the announcement, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Ahn Deok-geun negotiated secretly through a personal letter from the President, and on the 22nd, immediately after the announcement of the 'selection of negotiating partners', President Yoon Seok-yeol sent a special envoy headed by Policy Director Sung Tae-yong. He again ordered the delivery of personal letters for meetings with the Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic, including Minister Ahn.
On this day, Director Seong announced that the amount of the construction contract would be "decided through later negotiations" and that President Yoon would visit the Czech Republic next month and hold talks with the Prime Minister.
Previously, KHNP competed with KEPCO E&C, Korea Nuclear Fuel, KEPCO KPS, Doosan Energy, and Daewoo E&C as 'Team Korea', and with Electricity of France (EDF) through a bid proposal, and foreign media reported that KHNP's proposed price was dumped at half that of France. revealed.
The World Nuclear Energy Association (WNA) announced that the unit price for nuclear power plant construction as of 2021 is $3,571/kW for Korea and $7,931/kW for France, and stated that the figures announced by KEPCO were “unreliable due to a lack of independent audit.”
Regarding the criticism of damping on the 18th, Minister Ahn Deok-geun said, “It is absurd. “Based on our technology and business management capabilities, we have that much price competitiveness,” he responded.
The UAE's Baccarat Nuclear Power Plant, which President Yoon presented as a successful operation in winning the Czech nuclear power plant contract, initially contracted for a construction cost of USD 20 billion on the condition that the Export-Import Bank of Korea provide USD 10 billion, and the construction cost increased by 25% to USD 24.4 billion, according to the World Atomic Energy Industry Organization (World Atomic Energy Industry Organization). WNIS) said.
Regarding Baccarat Unit 1, WNIS said, “In the original $20 billion contract, the total cost was at least $24.4 billion,” and “According to external reports, $16.2 billion was received from the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Finance, $4.7 billion from stocks, and $2.5 billion from the Export-Import Bank of Korea. The rest was covered by loan agreements with Abu Dhabi National Bank, First Gulf Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered. In October 2016, KEPCO acquired an 18% stake in Nawa Energy, and the remaining 82% was held by ENEC (Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation). “It is in possession of it,” he said on August 21, 2020.
A report on the rapid increase in nuclear power plant construction costs (May 2023) published by the Institute for Progress (IFP), an American technological progress think tank, said, “Nuclear power generation in the United States has suffered from a steady and dramatic increase in power plant construction costs.” “In the 1980s, several plants in Washington were canceled after projected construction costs rose from $4.1 billion to more than $24 billion, resulting in a $2 billion default from utility providers, and two nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia (currently in the U.S. “The only nuclear reactor under construction in South Carolina is expected to cost twice as much as originally estimated, and two reactors in South Carolina were canceled after costs rose from $9.8 billion to $25 billion.”
The IFP report shows that in the United States, commercial plants that began construction in the late 1960s cost less than $1000/KWe (2010), plants started just 10 years later cost nine times that cost, and current Vogtle 3 and 4 reactors cost $8000/KWe (2010). “It is expected to cost $6000/KWe per year, but the actual cost is almost double due to financing costs.”
The report said that cost increases, such as France and Germany, “most countries show a similar pattern of increasing costs until the 1980s and then level off, but Korea is the only country where construction costs have steadily decreased,” adding, “due to Korea’s unique circumstances.” “Some experts assumed that the cost data (published by the Korea Electric Power Company without an independent audit) could not be reliable,” he said.
Regarding U.S. nuclear power, the New York Times said, “The problem is that it has become prohibitively expensive, making traditional nuclear reactors huge, complex, and tightly regulated projects that are difficult to build and finance,” adding, “The only U.S. reactor built in the past 30 years, the one in Georgia, “Bogel Units 3 and 4 cost $35 billion, more than twice the initial estimate, and were built seven years behind schedule,” the company reported on June 11.
The IFP report explains the reason for the surge in nuclear power plant costs: “Regulations are constantly changing, so from construction drawings to one book with safety bulletins, quality control approval sheets and general information related to the work, another with drawings and specifications, and another with drawings and specifications.” “There are design changes in the volume, and in some packages the design change drawings are twice the volume,” he said.
“In the United States, labor costs have increased dramatically, especially for high-cost professionals,” the report continued. “The increase in professional labor costs has been driven by frequent regulatory changes during the period, resulting in extensive design changes, delays, rework, and general disruption to plants in progress. Coordination issues arose and the quality assurance and quality control requirements became very burdensome and aggravated.”
The report specifically states, “In addition to skyrocketing labor costs, regulations also impact the direct cost of nuclear power plant construction through QA/QC requirements,” adding, “Plant components require extensive testing and validation to ensure they continue to operate even after a catastrophic event.” as
The report on QA requirements during construction of new nuclear power plants stated:
“A simple field change (made on an existing plant in the normal course of work) to avoid physical interference between components must be documented as an interference, referred to an engineer for evaluation, drawings prepared, approved, and then changed before the change is made. must be released to the field beforehand.
Conflicts must be tagged, identified, and logged during change processes, which can take days or weeks and take thousands of iterations.
In the meantime, construction crews must move away from this job, install it on another job, and then move back and set it back up on the original job once the nonconformity is resolved, with every foot of nuclear safety-related wire purchase accounted for and its exact location within the plant recorded.
“The nuclear power plant must tell us for each circuit what type of wire was used, the name of the person responsible for installing it, the reel the wire came from, manufacturing testing, and production history.”
Regarding rational nuclear power plant construction methods, the report said, “A significant portion of the cost of a new nuclear power plant is construction labor costs and financing costs, both of which are subject to the impact of project delays and rework, so effective project management is essential for nuclear power plant construction.” “As with the nuclear power supply chain, lack of project management experience in nuclear power plant construction (the most complex and expensive capital project in existence) hinders the ability to deliver new power plants on time and on budget, and nuclear power plant project management skills are tied to the physical aspects of the supply chain. “Project management must be maintained with the help of mature plant design and a stable regulatory environment to reduce the likelihood of construction problems and make schedule planning more feasible,” he said, conditional on an understanding and rational approach to effective management regulations. .