U.S. Nuclear Power Construction Included as Candidate in South Korea's U.S. Investment Consultations

On September 10, 2026, consultations between South Korea and the United States over a $350 billion U.S. investment plan entered a late stage. In addition to the Encinar gas combined-cycle power project in Texas being regarded as the first investment candidate, the U.S. side is said to have also proposed using a considerable portion of the $200 billion in strategic investment for nuclear power plant construction.

According to related information, the U.S. nuclear power construction plan includes up to eight large nuclear reactors, and South Korea's APR1400 reactor design has also been included in discussions for some projects. South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said regarding the nuclear power projects that relevant parties are in consultations, but specific details have not yet been determined.

Texas's rapidly growing electricity demand is an important background for the South Korea-U.S. discussions on energy investment. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the Texas power grid, is reviewing interconnection applications totaling about 474 GW, of which about 90% come from data centers. If estimated on the basis that 1 GW typically corresponds to the power generation scale of one large nuclear unit, the electricity demand corresponding to the above applications is roughly equivalent to 474 large nuclear units, more than five times Texas's historical peak electricity demand.

Texas has already gathered multiple gigawatt-scale data centers and power projects, including the “Stargate” project advanced by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle in places such as Abilene; the “Project Kilby” advanced by Microsoft and Chevron in Reeves County; and related projects involving Meta, BlackRock, Nvidia, Irene, Google, and Intersect. As AI data centers and advanced manufacturing projects increase, pressure on Texas's power supply continues to rise.

Texas Governor Greg·Abbott previously required ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to carry out verification and audits of all data center projects in the interconnection process. Before the review is completed, the relevant projects may not connect to the grid; projects that do not meet the requirements will be denied grid connection. Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) lowered its forecast for U.S. electricity sales growth in 2027 from 2.9% to 1.8%, and listed the impact of Texas's data center project review on development progress as one of the factors.

Against the backdrop of growing electricity demand, South Korea and the United States are also discussing making the Encinar gas combined-cycle power project in Texas the first project under the U.S. investment plan. The project has a total investment of about $22 billion and a planned installed capacity of about 6.3 GW. It is planned to first build a 1.4 GW gas turbine project to test demand and economic feasibility, and then gradually expand with 4.9 GW of high-efficiency combined-cycle power generation facilities.

South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan is expected to visit the United States from September 10 to 12 local time to continue coordinating with the U.S. side on the targets, scale, and implementation timeline of the U.S. investment. An official from South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that South Korea and the United States are in consultations over investment projects, and the relevant investment targets, scale, and schedule will be clarified through corresponding procedures after the consultations conclude.