Slovenia's GEN to intensify study of SMR options
In the wake of the cancellation of a planned referendum on new nuclear in Slovenia, the Director General of GEN energija, Dejan Paravan, has said that alongside continuing work on the proposed JEK2 project they will also be seeking more detailed information from small modular reactor companies.
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Speaking at the Slovenian Association for Energy Economics conference at the University of Ljubljana, Paravan said that the company was continuing to prepare everything necessary for a final investment decision on the JEK2 project to be taken in 2028.
JEK2 is a plan for a new one or two-unit nuclear power plant, with up to 2400 MW capacity, next to Slovenia's existing nuclear power plant, Krško, a 696 MWe pressurised water reactor which generates about one-third of the country's electricity and which is co-owned by neighbouring Croatia. Prime Minister Robert Golob has committed to hold a referendum on the project before it goes ahead, and it had been due to be held on 24 November, before it was cancelled amid political differences. Golob's Freedom Movement said that there would still be a referendum, but it would now be later in the process, by 2028 at the latest.
At the conference, Paravan said that GEN remained committed to the project but "we cannot ignore what happened in the past months. For this reason, in addition to ongoing activities on the project, we will additionally intensify activities related to studying the possibility of using small modular reactors and ask key suppliers for detailed information".
He added: "The events of the past months have also shown the necessity of a professional and open discussion regarding the energy future of Slovenia, which is not based on emotions and takes into account the reality of possible alternatives, including the necessary interventions in space that these technologies require."
As part of the public information process ahead of the planned referendum, the option of small modular reactors (SMRs) at the JEK2 site had been considered, but it had been concluded that, given the timelines proposed for the project, SMRs were not considered suitable, compared with larger units. However, the assessment said that GEN would continue to monitor the development of SMR technology, noting that "the development of this technology is very dynamic, the promises of the providers are great" although the "technical and economic assumptions of SMR technology have not yet been proven in practice".
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