Korea's strategic investment program in the United States has taken shape around three large energy projects: a combined-cycle gas plant in Texas, eight large nuclear reactors in the U.S. and a liquefied natural gas development in Alaska. The Texas gas plant has been confirmed as the first investment, while the locations for the reactors and the timeline for the Alaska LNG project have also come into focus.
Project Star, the first investment to be finalized, calls for $22.3 billion to build a 6,472-megawatt combined-cycle gas plant in Encinal, Texas. Power from the plant will be supplied directly to nearby artificial intelligence data centers. The first phase of gas turbine generation is set to begin in 2029, followed by a second phase in 2031 and a third in 2032, completing the full facility.
Project Power involves building eight large nuclear reactors in the U.S. at a cost of up to $120 billion. It consists of six Westinghouse AP1000 units and two Korean-designed APR1400 units. The total cost combines about $100 billion in construction spending with a $20 billion contingency reserve for cost overruns.
The locations for the reactors were disclosed for the first time. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sept. 30 that the reactors would be built in four states: Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky. He did not say how many units would go to each state or where the two APR1400 reactors would be located. The sites overlap substantially with federally owned land that the U.S. government has been developing to expand AI data centers and new power generation capacity.
The two countries also set up a separate cooperation framework to advance the eight-reactor project. The so-called nuclear framework covers the construction sequence and cost of the six AP1000 and two APR1400 units, the method for selecting sites and the principles for Korean corporate participation. The reactors will be built on federal land designated by the U.S. side, though Korea may request that sites be reassigned. Specific sites, business structures and construction schedules will be set project by project before final investment decisions are made.
Korean nuclear companies are also expected to gain wider access to the U.S. market. The two sides agreed to give priority consideration to Korean participation not only in the APR1400 work but also in AP1000 construction, and to let Korea recommend vendors and suppliers. Advance orders will be placed to secure long-lead items such as reactor vessels and steam generators, which take years to manufacture.
The third project, Project North, would transport natural gas produced from oil and gas fields in northern Alaska to Anchorage and Nikiski in the south for export as LNG. In the first phase, a pipeline of about 1,300 kilometers would be built by 2029 to supply roughly 2.3 million tons of gas a year to Anchorage. A liquefaction plant and LNG terminal would then be built at Nikiski, with exports targeted to begin in 2032. The full project is sized at about 20 million tons a year.
Unlike Project Star, however, Project North has not yet been approved for investment. U.S. officials said Korea's investment would exceed $50 billion, but the Korean government says it has only begun reviewing the project, subject to commercial viability and procedures required under domestic law.
