Hyundai Engineering & Construction has become the first South Korean company to renovate an atomic reactor for research purposes in Europe, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said Tuesday.

Ministry authorities said that a consortium formed of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Hyundai Engineering was named the preferred bidder for renovating an atomic reactor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and for adding a cold neutron research facility.

The $26 million deal is expected to be signed in July with construction due to finish by the end of 2017.

“The deal will be our stepping stone for advancing into the European market. We hope this will help South Korea win an advantageous spot in the bidding for the PALLAS project, which is to construct and operate new high flux reactors in the Netherlands,” said Science Minister Choi Mun-kee.

Other ministry officials said that competition for the project has been fierce.

“The Dutch university’s Optimized Yield for Science, Technology, Education or Radiation, also known as OYSTER, is known to be quite prestigious, and some of the best players in France, Germany and Russia vied to help increase the research reactor’s power output capacity from 2 megawatts to 3 megawatts, but in the end, the South Korean consortium was selected,” a ministry official said.

The main reason South Korea was chosen was thanks to its past experience building a cold neutron research facility from 2003-2010 at the site of Korea’s High-Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor, or HANARO, based on local technology, he added.

Operations of the facility have been successful.

There are also similarities between the OYSTER and HANARO projects. For example, both involve building the new facilities in a highly radiated environment.

Furthermore, Hyundai Engineering & Construction is a veteran in reactor construction, having built Korea’s Kori 1 nuclear power reactor ― the first pressurized light water reactor ― in 1972. It also constructed the first pressurized heavy water reactor, Wolseong No. 1. Hyundai has constructed 14 of the nation’s 23 nuclear power plants.

Also, based on its experience in building the 30 megawatt HANARO in 1995, the company is involved in the construction of eight atomic power plants at home and abroad.

South Korea won deals to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates in 2009; a 5 megawatt research reactor in Jordan; and improvement of reactors in Thailand in 2009 and Malaysia in 2011.

“According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, about 60 percent of 246 units of research-purpose nuclear reactors have been operating for more than 40 years and 30-50 of their units may need replacement in the next 20 years. The future is bright for us,” a ministry official said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)