South Korea’s state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) confirmed on Tuesday that it was interested in participating in the U.K government-led Moorside project of building a nuclear power plant with capacity of up to 3.8Gigawatt that is on the brink of falling apart due to pull-out of its biggest stakeholder Toshiba Corp.

“It doesn’t mean we are buying the Toshiba stake, but once debt and asset conditions are reorganized (as the result of Toshiba’s withdrawal), we would be first to join the consortium,” Cho Hwan-eik, KEPCO’s chief executive officer, told reporters.

Toshiba owns 60 percent in U.K-based NuGeneration (NuGen), and its French partner Engie 40 percent. The company is working on to build nuclear reactors based on signature AP1000 technology of Westinghouse Electric in Moorside, West Cumbria. Toshiba bought Moorside in 2006 and the Japanese conglomerate announced it would be selling assets including the chipmaking operation and nuclear business outside of the U.S. after it had to take a $6.3 billion write-down as the result of the disastrous purchase of a U.S. construction firm in 2015. Toshiba is said to be mulling bankruptcy option for Westinghouse.

The Moorside project that was scheduled to start in 2018 is eagerly pursued by the U.K. government in its hope that the fleet of nuclear stations could fill the energy gap in the next decade from phase-out of coal-fueled and aging atomic plants. The government is said to be considering taking a stake in the plant to save the project.

“Our interest is in the NuGen stake. The debt structure needs to be worked out by U.K and Japanese authorities,” Cho said.

KEPCO’s overseas venture has been limited to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where it had built a nuclear power plant in 2009. The state utility firm also plans to bid for a reactor project in South Africa this year and another in Saudi Arabia in the next two to three years.

Shares of KEPCO closed Wednesday at 47,200 won, up 2.83 percent or 1,300 won from the previous session.

By Kim Jung-hwan

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