Bill Gates was in Seoul on August 14, 2026, to meet with the leadership of HD Hyundai and Hyundai Engineering & Construction. On the agenda: the commercialization of the Natrium reactor, the sodium-cooled small modular reactor developed by TerraPower. It was the first high-level meeting between the three companies since they signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding in May to cooperate on next-generation reactors.
At the table sat HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Kisun, TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque, and Hyundai E&C CEO Lee Han-woo. Discussions centered on concrete strategies for bringing the Natrium to commercial-scale production. HD Hyundai is set to invest in manufacturing infrastructure with a clear target: supplying two or three primary vessels per year. This is no vague ambition. Manufacturing capacity has been the bottleneck standing between the project and global expansion, and the agreement is designed to remove it.
The partnership between the two companies predates the recent MOU. HD Hyundai invested $30 million in TerraPower back in 2022. In March 2025, it signed a strategic agreement to develop the Natrium supply chain, followed by a year-long joint study on manufacturing feasibility, cost competitiveness, and delivery timelines. Then, in May 2026, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was selected as the preferred manufacturing partner for the reactor’s key components. The August meeting closes the loop, translating formal agreements into executive-level planning.
The Natrium is an approximately 345-megawatt sodium-cooled reactor featuring integrated thermal energy storage that allows output power to be flexed on demand. It generates roughly 40% less nuclear waste than conventional reactors. The first Natrium plant is under construction in Kemmerer, Wyoming, following approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. TerraPower has already signed an agreement with Meta to build up to eight Natrium plants by 2035. Industrial demand for this technology is real — and contractually backed.
South Korea is emerging as a central hub in the global nuclear supply chain. Beyond HD Hyundai, SK Innovation also participated in the August meetings with Gates in Seoul, signing a term sheet to jointly promote SMR projects in U.S. and international markets. A growing number of Korean companies are now actively seeking roles in component supply, construction, and plant operations for TerraPower projects. The concentration of commitments sealed in a single negotiating session in Seoul speaks to the pace at which this supply chain is taking shape.
If production plans hold, the Natrium will not remain a demonstration project for long. The ability to build two or three reactors per year is the threshold at which a technology stops being a pilot case and becomes a scalable market offering. With an industrial network spanning Korean heavy industry and the American energy sector, the ecosystem forming around TerraPower increasingly resembles the infrastructure of a mature industry.
