Seaborg "Ready to start licensing activities in South Korea"

Friday, February 28, 2025

The compact developer of the melted salt reactor in Denmark, Seaborg Technologies, raised DKK200 million ($ 228 million) from existing investors and appointed a new president and said that he is now planning the first reactor to be ready in the first half of the 2030s.

The company said that the funds will be used to “accelerate our development” and to expand their team in Denmark and Korea “, as well as to launch more development projects with partners from Europe, USA and Korea.”

Niels de Coninck-Smith, a former partner in McKinsey, was appointed new president. Co-founder and former CEO Troels Schonfeldt leaves the Board of Directors.

Andreas Schofield, technological and co-founding director, said: “The design and research base of our reactor technology has now reached a maturity in which we are ready to start licensing activities with the nuclear authorities in South Korea. The next design phase will be focused on increasing testing and validation in our newly extended and external parts in Korea and global. ”

Klaus Nyengaard, CEO, said: “Together with the two strong consortiums, Samsung Heavy Industries and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, we plan to be ready in the first half of the 2030, followed by the series production from the mid -2030.”

The background

Seaborg’s design is intended for compact modular power barges with melted salt (CMSR), equipped between two and eight 100 100 MWe reactors, with an operational life of 24 years. Instead of having solid fuel rods that need constant cooling, the CMSR fuel is mixed in a liquid salt that acts as a cooling liquid, which means it will close and solidify in case of emergency. In May of last year, he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Atomic Energy Research in Korea “to combine its strengths and development points” to promote nuclear technology.

In 2023, he signed a cooperation agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Samsung Heavy Industries to set up a consortium to develop floating nuclear power plants with the compact technology of the Seaborg melted salt reactor.

Seaborg, which was founded in 2014 and had discussions about implementations in different countries, including Norway, Indonesia and Vietnam, and has previously proposed to produce a commercial prototype in 2026 and Power Barges from 2028.