According to the statement, the cooperation would cover Synthos’ proposed SMR deployment plans for the potential production of electric power, district and industrial heat, and hydrogen.
NCBJ said cooperation plans would focus on the deployment of both light-water SMRs and small high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR), which the NCBJ has been championing for some time.
In January 2018, a report by NCBJ, which operates Poland’s only research reactor, Maria, on the outskirts of Warsaw, advised the government that HTGR technology would offer Poland an affordable and reliable heat source for domestic industry and help reduce the country’s dependency on imported gas and polluting coal.
In contrast to its conventional nuclear new-build programme, Poland expects HTGRs to help decarbonise the non-power sectors of its industry by providing heat for large industrial consumers like those in the chemicals sector.
The Polish government has been supportive of the proposed use of HTGR technology by NCBJ, though developments have to date remained at the research and planning level.
Synthos, a manufacturer of synthetic rubber and one of the biggest producers of chemical raw materials in Poland, has said it was interested in obtaining affordable, on-demand, carbon-free energy from a dependable, dedicated source.
In October 2019, Synthos and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) signed a cooperation agreement focused on development and deployment of GEH’s BWRX-300 SMR units in Poland. The company had not announced plans to work towards the deployment of an HTGR.
