A graduate school run by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. is expanding its education on nuclear power to foreign students.

Oh Se-kee, president of KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, or KINGS, visited Kenya in May to discuss nuclear issues in both countries and to reaffirm mutual cooperation. Oh also had a meeting with 10 Kenyan KINGS alumni who now work in their home country.

KINGS offers a master degree program exclusively focusing on nuclear power studies. Since it opened in 2012, the school has stood as a global educational institution forming a wide ranging network, school officials said. It admits 80 students every year, half of them non-Koreans, from nuclear power-related businesses.

The school also signed a memorandum of understanding with various universities in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Egypt and Iran to produce nuclear power professionals. It has also made an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to offer four-week training courses to countries seeking to build nuclear power plants. The Angolan ambassador to Korea recently visited the school in Ulsan to discuss a student exchange program.

“International demand in nuclear power plants will globally increase to reduce greenhouse gas emissions following the Paris Agreement,” Oh said.

“We aim to become the world’s best energy education institute and would like to produce leading professionals armed with expertise in power plants.”

By Song Ji-won (jiwon.song@heraldcorp.com)