Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) CEO Whang Joo-ho speaks during his inaugural address held at the KHNP headquarters in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Monday. Courtesy of KHNP

By Lee Kyung-min

Korea's nuclear industry is aiming to emerge as a global export powerhouse with the full and extensive support of the government, a much-awaited momentum for recovery powered by the new CEO of the country's state-run nuclear energy firm.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) CEO Whang Joo-ho, whose three-year term began Monday, said fortifying the key energy industry will be his top priority, as reiterated by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

"We will export 10 nuclear power plants," he said during his inaugural address held at the KHNP headquarters in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Monday.

"We will write a new history, a goal we can achieve with potential and pride as a global nuclear powerhouse that began without any technology or capital. I hereby ask for the full commitment of the 12,000 KHNP employees," he said.

The former professor of nuclear engineering at Kyung Hee University is an expert on high-level radioactive waste treatment. The Seoul National University graduate is the first to hold a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from an overseas academic institution, the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He is the first non-former bureaucrat to head the state-run entity in 10 years. The position was filled mostly with retired former trade ministry officials and KHNP officials.

At the top of his agenda will be winning overseas orders and resuming stalled projects, the first of which is the construction project to build power plants in El Dabaa, Egypt.

Winning new projects in the Czech Republic and Poland will be another priority, to be detemined by fierce competition with the U.S. and France.

Also to be fortified are the small modular reactors (SMR) business and renewable-mediated hydrogen energy generation.

The drive will be advanced further by the energy ministry, the energy policy of which has taken a rapid and clear shift to identify the previously shunned energy source as a new growth driver.

Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang made a trip to the Czech Republic and Poland in June to fortify bilateral cooperation in the nuclear energy business as part of his first official overseas trip.