FACTBOX: S.Korea marks 1st commercial nuclear power export

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Sunday it had won a $20-billion deal from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build four nuclear reactors, one of the world's biggest nuclear power contracts.

A South Korean consortium also expects to earn another $20 billion by jointly operating the reactors for 60 years helped by the largest-ever energy deal.

This deal marks South Korea's first export of its nuclear power reactors in the country's 30-year, nuclear power history. Here are some details on South Korea's nuclear power generation history, industries and policies, according to the government and industry sources:

* South Korea started its first nuclear power generation in 1978, based upon U.S. technology. Since then, it has developed technologies of its own for 95 percent of the standard nuclear power plant.

* South Korea, the world's No.2 developer of the third generation of light water reactors, runs 20 reactors with a total capacity of 17,716 megawatts, and is building eight more across the country.

* Under the UAE contract, South Korea will build four advanced power reactors (APRs) which are 1,400-megawatt pressurized, light-water type, of which development was completed in 2002.

* South Korea, the world's No.6 nuclear power developer, hopes to develop APR+ by 2012 based upon its own technology. It also plans to develop small- and medium-sized nuclear reactors, dubbed SMART, for export by 2011.

* South Korea aims to expand the nuclear power portion of its total power generation to 41 percent by 2030 from 24 percent in 2008 to lower its energy imports and meet its 2020 emission reduction target of 30 percent against 2005 level.

* South Korea has had no nuclear accident in the past 30 years, and its reactor utilization rate was 93.3 percent in 2008, the highest in the world. The world's utilization rate was 79.4 percent on average.

* South Korea's lack of history in exporting commercial nuclear power plants had been seen as a possible disadvantage in trying to win the UAE deal. Earlier this month it did win a 200 billion won ($170.6 million) order to build a nuclear reactor for research from Jordan, its first such deal.

($1=1,172.0 won)