In Washington, D.C., U.S. government officials and Polish officials, including Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister, Jacek Sasin, will announce that NuScale Power and Poland’s KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. (KGHM) signed an agreement to initiate the deployment of NuScale’s innovative small modular reactor (SMR) technology.
The definitive agreement between NuScale Power, whose SMR is the first and only small modular reactor to receive design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and KGHM, a Poland-based leader in copper and silver production and large industrial energy user, will position KGHM as a clean energy implementation leader with the first deployment of SMRs in Poland.
Under this agreement, NuScale will work with KGHM to support the deployment of SMR technology, and together, the organizations will take steps toward deploying a first NuScale VOYGR power plant in Poland as early as 2029, which would help Poland avoid up to 8M tons of CO2 emissions per year.
The deployment of the VOYGR plant by 2029 is directly tied to the Climate policy of KGHM Polska Miedź and the Company’s new strategic direction - energy.
The first task under the agreement will identify and assess potential project sites and develop project planning milestones and cost estimates. These activities support KGHM as it evaluates NuScale VOYGR plants as a coal repurposing solution for existing power plants, as well as opportunities to deploy VOYGR plants to provide safe, carbon-free, reliable energy for their operations and to support other Polish industrial energy users.
The announcement will come after industry leaders, policymakers, and scientists from around the world discussed solutions to address the climate crisis and decrease carbon emissions at United Nations summit on climate change, COP26, in early November.
NuScale VOYGR power plants can generate up to 270 permanent power plant jobs, 1,200 construction jobs, and 4,600 manufacturing jobs per plant deployment, and act as an effective and critical means to reach climate goals. ■