Entitled SMRs: Facts and Myths, the report concludes that SMR technology is a promising option and that small modular reactors could help decarbonise Poland's energy mix.
Image: Radio Poland
Poland's Synthos Green Energy, a partner of the energy giant Orlen, has already teamed up with US and Canadian firms to advance the deployment of small modular reactors, taking a step closer to bringing the technology to Poland.
Last month, a Technical Collaboration Agreement was announced in Washington by the global nuclear company GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), Poland’s Synthos Green Energy (SGE), America’s Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and Canada’s Ontario Power Generation (OPG).
Under the deal, TVA, OPG and SGE will invest in the development of "the BWRX-300 standard design" and a "detailed design for key components," according to officials.
In February last year, Polish state-run copper and silver producer KGHM signed an agreement with US firm NuScale Power to bring small modular reactors to Poland, while in June Polish state-owned energy firm Enea signed a letter of intent for SMRs with US developer Last Energy.
A number of countries have already expressed an interest in this technology, with the most far-reaching work on the deployment of SMRs currently in progress in the United States.
Are small modular reactors an opportunity for Poland as well?
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, "not only gas and oil" were "cut off," but various countries experienced "a lot of problems with traditional coal energy," the Warsaw Enterprise Institute's Tomasz Wróblewski told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler.
He said that Poland, like most other European countries, "has to go through a very quick changeover when it comes to the structure of its energy sector."
Wróblewski added: "We do not have much time and we have very few choices."
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