The Breakthrough Institute’s Nuclear Notes, in a piece by Matthew L. Wald and Spencer Toohill, walks through the nuclear side of the new trade arrangement with South Korea. According to the White House, Korea will invest up to $200 billion in U.S. energy projects. Up to $120 billion of that is earmarked for eight large reactors: six Westinghouse AP1000s and two Korean APR-1400s. The APR-1400 has never been built in this country.
Those two are the ones to watch.
The APR-1400 is sold by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and its subsidiary, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). It is a pressurized water reactor descended from Combustion Engineering’s System 80+, the same design family as Arizona Public Service’s Palo Verde plant. Westinghouse bought Combustion Engineering’s nuclear business in 2000. Nuclear Notes reports that eight APR-1400s run around the world, and that the NRC approved the design in 2019.
The Koreans’ calling card is Barakah in the United Arab Emirates. Construction began in 2012, and the fourth and final unit entered commercial operation in September.... That record is a big part of why KHNP is sought after for project management.
The problem was who owns the underlying technology.
There is a catch, though: the Koreans did not have permission to use Westinghouse’s intellectual property associated with the design of the 80+ reactor, and U.S. law banned re-export of U.S. technology without permission. That meant a one-time deal to get the reactors built in the United Arab Emirates.
https://www.nuclearnotes.org/p/outlines-of-a-korean-nuclear-deal
On the settlement that followed:
In January 2025, Westinghouse announced a “global settlement” with the Korean companies, but kept the details confidential. According to published reports, the settlement requires Korea to pay Westinghouse royalties for each APR-1400 that Korea exports, and bars KEPCO and KHNP from North America and parts of Europe. The blog Neutron Bytes recently cataloged the public reports.
https://www.nuclearnotes.org/p/outlines-of-a-korean-nuclear-deal
Westinghouse announced the settlement on January 17, 2025. Korean reporting puts the royalty at around 200 billion won, about $143 million, per export project. Other reporting says the exclusion covers new large reactor bids across North America, the EU outside Czechia... unless KHNP partners with Westinghouse.
And what the new deal changes:
But the new deal appears to make space for the first two Korean reactors stateside. If the APR-1400 goes head-to-head with the AP1000, the Korean companies will have to pay royalties to Westinghouse. However, the APR-1400 would have to be significantly less expensive to build for the Koreans to turn a profit. Other issues include Korea’s ability to bring large numbers of experts here to manage the work. In September 2025, armed American immigration agents raided a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia and arrested 300 technicians.
https://www.nuclearnotes.org/p/outlines-of-a-korean-nuclear-deal
The raid was at the Hyundai and LG Energy Solution battery site in Ellabell, Georgia, in September 2025. Agents arrested 475 people, some 300 of them South Korean nationals.
Korea may end up in the AP1000 business too. In June, the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing offered $17.5 billion in conditional loans to buy long lead-time equipment for up to ten AP1000s, and several utilities have applied. Nuclear Notes on where that equipment would come from:
But that hardware, for example reactor pressure vessels and steam generators, would most likely be built abroad, quite possibly in Korea. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Doosan Enerbility are likely candidates.
https://www.nuclearnotes.org/p/outlines-of-a-korean-nuclear-deal
Then there is ownership. Westinghouse is headed for an initial public offering, and Korea is weighing a stake, reported by Nuclear Notes at 5 to 20 percent. The U.S. government has floated a “golden share” with veto power over major decisions. Brookfield Asset Management, the Canadian firm that brought Westinghouse out of bankruptcy, holds the majority, and Cameco owns the rest.
