Fresh progress for Poland's Orlen Synthos SMR project

Orlen Synthos Green Energy and the national environmental agency's agreement covers the environmental goals to be achieved, the economic and business model for the project, the schedule for its implementation as well as capital investment.

The aim is for 10,000 MWe capacity to be built between 2029 and 2036. Initially, it is planned to build SMR power plants - using GE Hitachi's BWRX-300 SMR - in 10 selected locations.

The national environment fund said: "The SMR nuclear power plant can be built within 24-36 months on a site that is only 10% of the land of a large nuclear power plant. The nuclear island will only occupy the area of ​​a football field. Due to significantly lower capital expenditures and the speed of building the BWRX-300 reactor from modules, the programme of creating a network of small nuclear power plants is currently considered the most effective and fastest way to transform the Polish energy and heating sector towards decarbonisation and achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions."

The project also received a separate boost from the European Commission, which cleared the full function joint venture by oil refiner and petrol retailer Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A. and Synthos Green Energy S.A., which develops and implements zero-emission energy technologies, to create Orlen Sythos Green Energy.

In a statement the EC said: "The commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given its very limited impact on the market. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure."

Last month  Daniel Obajtek, CEO of Orlen, Poland's 49.9% state-owned fuel company, told reporters that in April they would announce 26 locations to be home to a planned fleet of up to 79 BWRX-300 SMRs. According to Poland's PAP news agency, the aim is to reach that number by 2038.