SK Innovation said on 28 October 2026 that it is taking part in TerraPower’s Natrium demonstration and commercialization projects in the United States, and that it wants to build a Korean supply chain it calls K-Natrium around them. Yoo Hyang-geun, team leader of the company’s Energy Solutions Business Division, made the remarks at the SMR special session of Smart Energy Plus 2026, held at COEX in Seoul.
Who does what in the K-Natrium plan
Yoo described a three way split of work. TerraPower handles reactor technology and design and engineering. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) applies its nuclear construction and operating experience. SK Innovation plans to cover energy storage facilities and power generation for Natrium reactors, drawing on its operating experience in existing energy plants.
The company says its early role is to join the first commercialization projects in the United States after the demonstration, then to expand into the domestic and global markets and eventually lead the overall business in Korea. Yoo’s own framing is that the SMR market goes to whoever completes a demonstration first.
The supply chain pitch: materials, components, construction, operations
SK plans to combine Natrium technology with Korean capabilities in materials, components, construction and operations. The stated aims are to lower costs and to enter overseas markets jointly with other Korean firms. Yoo said the goal is to export technology and to grow the domestic industry alongside those firms.
The company is preparing to submit Natrium technology for domestic pre-licensing review. It describes the domestic SMR business as the base for global expansion, in line with SMR adoption in Korea after 2035. All of this is the company’s own plan, presented at a conference session, not a signed programme.
The 2022 investment and the data center argument
SK Group invested in TerraPower in 2022. Yoo said that decision rested on the expected value of stable, carbon free, around the clock power as electrification spreads. He added that the 2022 case did not specifically count AI data centers as a large power source, and that he now expects the SMR pipeline to expand rapidly as AI infrastructure demand rises. The pipeline growth is a statement of expectation, not a disclosed order book.
What K-Natrium needs to become a contract
As described, K-Natrium is a sequence: the Wyoming demonstration, early participation in US commercialization projects, then domestic and global expansion, with the domestic SMR business tied to adoption in Korea after 2035. Each step depends on the one before it. The first belongs to TerraPower, and the 28 October remarks give no date for it. The K-Natrium label therefore describes an intended order of work with no priced commitment attached, so K-Natrium should be read as a plan until contracts are named.
For readers tracking Korea’s SMR policy, the practical markers are the domestic pre-licensing submission, any named Korean suppliers beyond KHNP and any disclosed investment. The K-Natrium presentation included none of them.
What the remarks did not disclose
| Item | Status in the 28 October remarks |
|---|---|
| Investment amount or stake size | Not disclosed |
| Names, sites and sizes of US commercialization projects | Not disclosed |
| Signed contracts | None mentioned |
| Reactor capacity and cost targets | Not given |
| Date of the domestic pre-licensing submission | Not given |
| Domestic supply chain partners beyond KHNP | None named |
Natrium context
TerraPower describes Natrium as a 345 megawatt sodium fast reactor paired with a molten salt system for energy storage, and says it has broken ground on its first plant in Wyoming. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted the construction permit application for that Kemmerer plant for review. The Wyoming schedule is not part of the SK remarks, yet it sets the pace of any Korean role.
Earlier coverage covers the commercial role Natrium opens for South Korea’s nuclear industry, the TerraPower push into Seoul and the wider US, Japan and South Korea SMR alliance.
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