Building a domestic uranium enrichment facility could replace more than 1 trillion won in imports each year, according to an analysis presented at a policy forum.
At the forum, titled "Nuclear Power for the AI Era" and hosted by People Power Party lawmaker Ko Dong-jin at the National Assembly on the 29th, Lee You-ho, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, said the supply of enriched uranium "is acting as a detonator for our energy security" and called for building enrichment capacity at home.
Lee noted that South Korea ranks fifth in the world for enrichment demand yet is the only country among the top five without its own enrichment facility. Because it sources all of its enriched uranium from abroad, the country is directly exposed to shifts in global supply chains. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power data showed that of the 2,077 tons of enriched uranium imported between 2020 and 2024, France supplied the largest share at 38%, followed by Russia at 32%, Britain at 25% and China at 5%.
Lee pointed in particular to the accelerating Western push to move away from Russian supply since the war between Russia and Ukraine. As the United States and Europe cut purchases of Russian enriched uranium, demand could concentrate on non-Russian suppliers such as France, driving competition for volumes and pushing prices higher, he said.
Domestic demand alone would be enough to make an enrichment facility economically viable, according to the analysis. Lee's laboratory estimated that domestic demand, measured in separative work units (SWU), will rise from about 3,300 tons SWU a year at present to 4,500 tons SWU by 2038. A facility of that scale built in South Korea would have production costs of $95 to $102 per SWU, more than 40% below the current market price of about $180.
Replacing all imported volumes with domestic production would yield import substitution worth about $800 million, or roughly 1 trillion won, a year. Net savings over the 40 years from 2040 were estimated at a minimum of $16 billion.
Conditions for negotiations with Washington have also changed from the past, Lee said. He noted that a joint fact sheet issued by the two countries last year included language stating that the United States supports procedures that would lead to civilian uranium enrichment in South Korea, and described that as an opportunity to advance the domestic enrichment debate.
Still, significant regulatory hurdles remain before a commercial enrichment facility can be built. The current Nuclear Safety Act contains no definition of enrichment facilities and no licensing procedures for them. Lee recommended overhauling the relevant laws and building a facility to develop and verify centrifuges using materials with properties similar to uranium, in order to secure domestic technology and performance data.
