South Korea SMR Pre-Review Opens This Month; About 10 Developers Eye It

South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) will open a preliminary review system for small modular reactors (SMRs) later this month, and about 10 Korean and foreign developers have signaled they may apply, NSSC chair Choi Won-ho told Yonhap News Agency in an interview on Oct. 29.

The system lets a developer have its reactor design and safety case checked by the regulator before it files for a construction permit. The United States and Canada already run similar programs. Choi said some developers will apply as soon as it starts, and he named BEES Inc. of Korea, TerraPower of the United States and Saltfoss Energy of Denmark among them.

Energy Economy (EKN), a Korean business daily, reported after an NSSC briefing on July 15 that the system takes effect on Nov. 20. It follows an April amendment to the Nuclear Safety Act. At that briefing an NSSC official put the number of interested firms at about three, so the interest Choi describes has roughly tripled since July. No formal application had been filed at that point, according to the same report.

What a preliminary review changes for SMR schedules

Choi said the system should reduce regulatory uncertainty for companies and let the regulator learn new technology earlier. For an SMR that is meant to supply a data center campus, a design question found in review rather than after a construction-permit filing is a schedule risk removed. A pre-review is not a license, though, and it does not start construction.

Korea announced a regulatory roadmap for SMRs in February, under which the NSSC will overhaul its safety standards in phases by 2030 to cover reactors of different designs. Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Oct. 7, citing an NSSC strategy document, that developers plan three pre-review applications in 2027 and five in 2028, and that the commission's tailored technical standards and review method are targeted for 2032. TerraPower's Natrium reactor, which the U.S. developer is pursuing with a consortium of SK Innovation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), is among the designs lined up for 2027, according to that report.

Where the regulator is stretched

The same report said each reactor design needs 15 to 20 reviewers and that 18 are tied up with the homegrown i-SMR, which is a light-water design. The NSSC's own estimate is that it needs 33 SMR staff in 2027, 37 in 2028 and 39 in 2029 and 2030. Korea's current technical standards were written for large light-water reactors, which JoongAng says makes them hard to apply to sodium-cooled or molten-salt designs.

Voltgrid News reported earlier on Hyundai E&C's master deal for the 240 MWe EAGL-1 SMR and on Doosan Enerbility's NuScale reactor vessel order. Both sit on the supply side. The review system is the domestic licensing step, and the regulator's staffing will set how quickly any design can be examined in Korea.

What is not confirmed yet

Choi's interview says "later this month" and gives no date. The Nov. 20 date comes from EKN's July report, and Voltgrid found no NSSC statement confirming it. No formal application had been confirmed as filed. The interview gave no review timeline for a single design, and neither source states any MW figure or data-center customer tied to a Korean pre-review.