Gaon Cable's North Carolina nuclear cable line waits on certification and customers

Seoul Economic Daily states the supply-side case in a sentence: few new nuclear plants have been built for a long period, so supply chains for equipment such as nuclear power cables remain insufficient ^[4]. One reactor uses more than 50,000 cable circuits for power, control and measurement, and the cables are low-volume, high-variety items whose specifications change with where and how they are used ^[1][2]. LSCUS also has to win the US certifications that supplying the industry requires before it sells any of them ^[3].

The $50 million is due by April next year and doubles the medium-voltage capacity of a line that already runs ^[8]. The company did not disclose a budget for the nuclear equipment. We think that makes the nuclear line an option, or rather a conditional one, to be exercised once customers and certification arrive, and the evidence does not yet support calling it a committed bet. A nuclear-specific capital figure would change that view.

The company names three sources of demand: new reactors, small modular reactors and cable replacement at aging plants ^[5]. Replacement is the only one of the three that needs no new construction, though it still needs the certification ^[3]. A further source, Korean nuclear companies expanding their US work, is also the route LSCUS says it will use to enter the supply chain ^[5][3]. That ties the opportunity to a variable Gaon Cable does not control. "We expect new opportunities for local equipment suppliers as the US nuclear market expands and Korean companies increase their participation in American projects," a company official said ^[9].

The counter-thesis sits in the company's own account of why demand exists: soaring power use at AI data centers and heightened energy security concerns are driving renewed nuclear investment, according to Gaon Cable ^[6]. If that investment proceeds, certified US-made cable would have buyers beyond Korean-led projects.