“Polish renewable energy trader Respect Energy has signed an agreement with EDF to cooperate on the development of nuclear power projects in Poland based on France's Nuward small modular reactor (SMR) technology,” the World Nuclear News website reported this week.
"Respect Energy and EDF will now jointly start the evaluation process of specific new greenfield sites and continue to work on detailing the business and financing plans for this endeavor,” the companies said in a joint statement, as quoted by world-nuclear-news.org.
The announcement came after Polish top officials in November said the country aimed to build two nuclear power plants in just over a decade to strengthen its energy security, using technology provided by the United States and South Korea.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters at the time that US firm Westinghouse had been selected to build the nation's first nuclear power plant at Choczewo, on the Baltic Sea, by 2033.
Days later, officials announced that the state-owned Polish Energy Group and Polish energy producer ZE PAK had signed a letter of intent with South Korea’s state-owned energy company KHNP on developing plans for the construction of a nuclear power plant at Pątnów in south-central Poland.
According to previous government announcements, Poland was mulling a total of six nuclear power plants.
The government in Warsaw had been planning the programme for years, but the question of energy security took on added urgency after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Alongside the US and South Korean companies, France's multinational electric utility company Électricité de France (EDF), largely owned by the French state, had also made a bid.
In October 2021, EDF made an offer to the Polish government to build six European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) units.
“By signing an exclusive cooperation agreement [with EDF], we start an ambitious project of deploying the first European SMR in our country, which will help us to decarbonise the Polish economy and will expand our growing portfolio of zero-emission assets,” Respect Energy Chairman Sebastian Jabłoński said, as quoted by the world-nuclear-news.org website.
(mo/gs)
Source: world-nuclear-news.org
