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Business moguls set eyes on BWRX-300 project in Canada SMRs deployment is expected to be cheaper than large-scale nuclear, according to PKN Orlen chief executive Daniel Obajtek. Image courtesy PKN Orlen. The deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) will be an “important step” towards carbon neutrality by 2050 for Poland’s state-controlled fuels and energy company PKN Orlen, according to its chief executive officer Daniel Obajtek.

Mr Obajtek told the Rzeczpospolita daily that SMRs will not only provide power and heat, but will also bring a significant reduction in the company’s carbon footprint. Additionally, Mr Obajtek said these new technologies would also create new jobs in an “innovative and attractive” sector.

Last week, Orlen and Polish chemicals company Synthos signed an agreement to establish a joint venture that aims to commercialise microreactor and small modular reactor technologies in Poland, in particular GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH) BWRX-300 design.

GEH and Synthos Green Energy, a Synthos subsidiary, announced in October 2019 an agreement to collaborate on potential deployment applications for the BWRX-300 SMR in Poland.

According to Mr Obajtek, construction costs “per megawatt” of the SMR technology are expected to be 30% less in comparison to conventional large-scale reactor alternatives, while SMR-generated electricity will be about 30% cheaper in comparison to gas-generated electricity.

Asked about deployment timeframes, he said: “We hope that if the first small reactor gets built in Canada in 2028, it will come to our country soon after.” According to earlier reports, 2029 had been mentioned as a feasible day to deploy the BWRX-300 in Poland.

In a separate interview for Business Insider Poland, Synthos owner Michal Solowow described the introduction of SMRs by his company as a “big step”.

He said “at Synthos we are thinking rather more” about purple hydrogen and heat, generated from nuclear power, referring to an agreement signed with US-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation to assess the feasibility of using Ultra Safe’s 15-MW micro modular reactor.

“This is our mid-term solution and if we succeed, Synthos will go completely green,” he said.

About the company’s BWRX-300 plans, Mr Solowow said that the initial deployment of the SMR in Canada will make it a NOAK (next-of-a-kind) project for Poland, which will “radically ease our investment.”

Synthos, a manufacturer of synthetic rubber and one of the biggest producers of chemical raw materials in Poland, has said it in the past that it was interested in obtaining affordable, on-demand, carbon-free electricity from a dependable, dedicated source.

The BWRX-300 is a 300-MW water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that uses elements of the design and licensing basis of GEH’s US-certified economic simplified boiling water reactor (ESBWR) nuclear plant.

It was recently chosen by Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation to be the first grid-scale SMR plant scheduled to be completed by 2028 at the Darlington nuclear station site.

Date: Thursday, 16 December 2021
Original article: nucnet.org/news/orlen-and-synthos-see-smr-deployment-as-important-move-to-carbon-neutrality-12-3-2021