Bill Gates Visits Korea After One Year... Discusses SMR Cooperation with Government and Business Leaders

Arrives by Private Jet on the 13th Night
Meets with Government and Business Leaders to Discuss Nuclear Cooperation

Bill Gates, Chairman of the Gates Foundation, is arriving in Seoul through the Gimpo Business Aviation Center on the 13th. Photo by Yonhap News

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and founder of nuclear power company TerraPower, as well as Chairman of the Gates Foundation, has visited Korea for the first time in a year to discuss expanding cooperation on small modular reactors (SMRs) with leaders from the public and business sectors.

Chairman Gates arrived at the Gimpo Business Aviation Center by private jet at around 9:20 p.m. on the 13th. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Han Seong-sook on the 14th. It has also been reported that a private meeting with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik is being arranged.

He is also set to meet with several leading business figures. On the 14th, Chairman Gates will discuss ways to collaborate on SMRs with HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Kisun. This will be their first meeting in about seven months, following their encounter at the Davos Forum in Switzerland earlier this year. Gates is also expected to meet with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and other members of the SK Group executive team. SK Group, a major shareholder of TerraPower, is currently coordinating details related to the schedule, agenda, and meeting participants for Gates' visit.

There is heightened interest in the outcomes of these meetings, especially since TerraPower has recently made significant progress in the next-generation nuclear power plant business. In March, TerraPower obtained construction approval for the Kemmerer Unit 1 in Wyoming from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This marked the first time in the United States that a next-generation, commercial-scale nuclear power plant has received construction approval.

Korean companies are also taking part in the project. In May, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was selected as the preferred negotiation partner to supply the Reactors Enclosure System (RES), a core facility for TerraPower’s sodium-cooled reactor. In January, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power acquired a stake in TerraPower valued at 40 million dollars (about 60 billion won).

This visit is assessed as closely linked to the Korean government's efforts to foster the SMR industry. Starting from the passage of the "SMR Special Act" in the National Assembly in February, the government plans to establish SMR manufacturing support centers in Changwon, Busan, and Gyeongju.

During his visit to Korea last year, Chairman Gates also emphasized SMRs as solutions to power challenges in the era of artificial intelligence. At the time, he met with President Lee Jaemyung and Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jeonggwan, stressing that "SMRs can be an effective answer to the growing power demand driven by AI and the semiconductor industry." Subsequently, he held discussions with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Kisun, and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jaeyong on establishing the supply chain and commercialization strategies for sodium-cooled reactors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.