HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Joins Forces with 11 Korean Institutions to Establish Marine SMR Technology Demonstration Center

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 6, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries joined forces with 11 Korean shipbuilding, nuclear industry, certification, and academic institutions to establish the "SMR Marine Technology Demonstration Center," advancing the development, testing, and validation of marine small modular reactor (SMR) technology and building a joint R&D foundation for subsequent industrialization. The 12 institutions signed the relevant memorandum of understanding on October 6 at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and announced the cooperation arrangement on October 7.

Participants include HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, KEPCO Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Korean Register, Hyundai Heavy Industries Turbomachinery, Clad Korea, as well as Ulsan Technopark, UNIST, Seoul National University, KAIST, and Hanyang University. The partners cover areas including ship design and construction, nuclear engineering, equipment manufacturing, classification societies, and university R&D.

The demonstration center's primary task is to integrate the existing professional personnel, testing equipment, and research infrastructure of the participating institutions for the joint development, testing, validation, and demonstration of marine SMR technology. The participating institutions plan to share existing testing facilities to reduce duplicate investment and improve the efficiency of technology validation.

The cooperation will also connect the technology needs raised by enterprises with the research capabilities of universities to jointly develop core technologies required for marine SMR applications. At the same time, the parties plan to jointly identify and plan large-scale national projects and government R&D tasks, creating a linkage between technology development and subsequent government funding support.

In terms of industrial chain division of labor, HD Hyundai and its related companies provide ship design, construction, and marine equipment capabilities; institutions such as KEPCO Engineering & Construction provide nuclear engineering capabilities; Korean Register is responsible for expertise in ship and related safety rules and certification systems; and universities and research institutions provide basic research and technology development capabilities. This cooperation is therefore not a single SMR product development project, but rather the establishment of a collaborative system covering technology development—testing and validation—demonstration—industrialization.

In recent years, HD Hyundai has been further extending nuclear technology from traditional nuclear power equipment supply to marine applications. In May 2026, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a Natrium reactor supply framework agreement with TerraPower of the United States and was selected as the preferred manufacturer of components related to the reactor containment system; in August of the same year, HD Hyundai, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and TerraPower further advanced Natrium commercialization cooperation.

In the field of nuclear-powered ships, HD Hyundai's HD KSOE had previously advanced the design of SMR-powered vessels. In 2023, HD KSOE, KEPCO Engineering & Construction, Lloyd's Register, and Zodiac Maritime conducted joint development around nuclear-powered bulk carriers and container ships; in 2026, HD KSOE also advanced the design of a large nuclear-powered container ship using SMR technology.

The establishment of this marine SMR demonstration center means that relevant Korean industries are further concentrating dispersed nuclear-powered ship R&D resources into a joint validation system.