I think South Korea is looking to pursue a similar reactor for their planned SSN, or at least it seems to be among the primary options being studied.
That's true - only France & China use LEU. But this list could increase as more countries acquire SSNs, namely Brazil and (possibly) S Korea.
Thought I should follow this up now that there have been some updates.
My previous guesstimate was right - South Korea is indeed going for LEU (usually meaning 5-7% enriched, but
can be upto 20%) for their SSN program.
South Koreas Nuclear Submarine Plan Needs U.S. Fuel Talks U.S. consultations delayed as South Korea pushes domestic construction amid political speculation over local elections
www.chosun.com
"
The government revealed on the same day that it plans to use low-enriched uranium (LEU) as fuel for the nuclear-powered submarines. However, face-to-face working-level consultations with the U.S., essential for securing the fuel, have not been held even once over the past six months."
"The government stated it would cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish a monitoring system and fulfill non-proliferation obligations during the LEU procurement process.
However, securing LEU is impossible without U.S. cooperation."
"
Under the current South Korea–U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement, even if South Korea seeks to enrich uranium to less than 20%, it must obtain U.S. consent through high-level consultations. Importing LEU from the U.S. also requires congressional support under U.S. atomic energy laws. Some reports suggest the
government is considering partnering with France, which operates LEU-based Suffren-class nuclear-powered submarines. However, a diplomatic source stated, “This is an option that can only be attempted if one is prepared for a complete breakdown in South Korea–U.S. relations.”
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My comments:
It appears to me that ROKN's SSN plan rests on obtaining LEU from the US. While enriching smaller quantities within SK should be possible, they'd have to scale it up eventually (especially as LEU reactors typically require refueling much more frequently than HEU ones) and that might not be possible without violating the terms of their agreement with the US from what I gather.
But I think, for SK, it shouldn't be a problem to obtain all necessary approvals and just buy the LEU from US. But it's possible they might be subject to periodic inspection or some other form of US oversight to ensure these SSNs (or the fuel itself) are never used against American interests in any way. Also possible US might leverage their control of the fuel to force SK to build their SSNs within the US, as Trump seems to want.
I'm not aware of where they are with regard to development of a 'Marinized' PWR. SK has been building land-based PWRs for a long time (initially of US-derived designs but eventually their own from what I gather, also sold to UAE) so I've no reason to doubt their capabilities in this department. Only thing I might question is the timeline: launching the first SSN by the mid-2030s (so ~10 years from now) might not be possible unless they've already built & tested a shore-based prototype of that marine PWR in secret. It's also possible they might be planning to do some of this research in parallel with the build program, but that carries a fair amount of risk if major changes become necessary down the line (happens all the time when certifying a new reactor design).
The Australians have it easy on that part: they're just gonna import fully built, sealed, life-of-type reactors with +97% HEU directly from the US/UK. Never have to worry about refueling them either. But it appears the US may not be comfortable approving this for the Koreans, hence LEU seems to be their only option.
Yes, most of this post has got nothing to do with the Turkish Navy directly, but I'm sure a lot of this is relevant for the NUKDEN program as well, especially following up my previous posts and conversation with
@Yasar_TR.
www.defenceturk.net
