The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Polish mining group KGHM orders mini-nuclear power plants for its operations

2021-09-25T07:05:29.134Z


KGHM is a mining group from Poland and the country's second largest electricity consumer. Because electricity from coal is becoming more and more expensive, the company is looking for new sources of energy. She has apparently struck gold in the USA.


Enlarge image

A steelworks of the Polish group KGHM in Legnica

Photo: JP Black / LightRocket via Getty Images

The Polish mining group KGHM has signed a letter of intent with the US company NuScale Power to develop at least four small nuclear reactors to operate its industrial plants.

"The climate changes are forcing us to act decisively," said Marcin Chludzinski, CEO of the mining company.

The first reactor should go online in 2029.

The blocks are to have an output of 77 megawatts each.

In contrast to large nuclear reactors, they have the advantage that they can be assembled from prefabricated parts in a factory and then transported to the place of use.

NuScale CEO John Hopkins said the small reactors are ideal for operation in decommissioned coal-fired power plants.

New generation of nuclear power plants?

KGHM is one of the largest copper and silver producers in the world and the second largest electricity consumer in Poland.

Poland is the country with the highest coal consumption in the European Union, it is about 70 percent dependent on coal for power generation.

Because coal electricity is becoming more and more expensive due to the European trade in CO2 certificates, Poland has one of the highest energy costs in the EU.

However, the country plans to close all coal mines by 2049 in order to achieve the EU's climate neutrality targets.

In order to continue to meet the energy demand, the government is planning to build large nuclear power plants with an output of up to nine gigawatts.

In the USA, several companies are working on the development of small, modular nuclear power plants (

Small Modular Reactor - SMR

), in addition to NuScale also the start-up Terrapower, which is co-financed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Small reactors are also known in other countries: for example, Russia has developed mini-nuclear power plants that can supply hard-to-access places with electricity on floating platforms, for example in the polar sea.

beb / AFP

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-09-25

You may like

Business 2024-02-16T07:21:00.299Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.