Toshiba Corp., which has a 60 percent stake in the NuGen consortium incharge of building the nuclear power plant in Cumbria, northwest England, plans to announce soon that KEPCO has become the preferred bidder, according to industry insiders, who wanted to remain anonymous. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s state-run utility firm Korea Electric Power Corp. was selected as the preferred bidder in a project to build a nuclear power plant in Britain, sources said Wednesday.
Toshiba Corp., which has a 60 percent stake in the NuGen consortium in charge of building the nuclear power plant in Cumbria, northwest England, plans to announce soon that KEPCO has become the preferred bidder, according to industry insiders, who wanted to remain anonymous.
Still, a KEPCO official said he is trying to confirm the report, while the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also said it has no information on the matter.
Greg Clark, U.K. business secretary, said in Seoul in April that KEPCO has”a very strong reputation internationally in nuclear energy.” Clark visited Seoul to meet with South Korean officials and executives of KEPCO and prospective investors about the nuclear power project.
Britain has launched a program to inject more into its energy sector, asmany of its nuclear reactors are coming to the end of their operational life cycles. Britain is seeking to maintain its nuclear power generation capacity aspart of its efforts to diversify its energy supply.
Currently, 20 percent of Britain’s electricity generation comes from nuclearpower plants.
In 2009, a South Korean consortium led by KEPCO won a US$20 billion deal to build four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates. It marked South Korea’s first export of nuclear reactors.
(Yonhap)
