US company to help Poland’s KGHM develop small modular reactors

The US will be a strategic partner in the implementation of nuclear technology in Poland, said the Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin. In Washington, he took part in the signing of the agreement between the Polish copper giant KGHM and the American NuScale for the construction of small modular reactors (SMR) in Poland.

KGHM is to build six such reactors within seven to eight years.

The Deputy PM said that the main task of Poland in the context of the energy transformation is to generate energy based on emission-free energy sources. As he explained, the country’s goal is to maintain energy security “and not to burden society with too high costs of changes.”

Mr Sasin recalled that KGHM was not the first large Polish company to choose an American partner in the development of small reactors. Earlier, a similar step was taken by PKN Orlen, which chose the SMR technology of the GE Hitachi concern.

The first task under the agreement is to determine and evaluate potential project locations and to develop stages and cost estimates for its planning.

These activities will help KGHM in the implementation of the NuScale VOYGR installation as a coal reuse solution for existing power plants, as well as the possibility of implementing these tools to ensure safe, emission-free, reliable energy for not only KGHM’s operations, but also to support other Polish industrial energy users.

In September 2021, KGHM announced plans to sign a deal with NuScale Power to develop 1-12 SMR reactors with the capacity of each to produce up to 77 megawatts of electricity (MWe), and said it hoped the first reactor would start operating as early as 2029.