A new national spatial planning strategy that explicitly paves the way not just for the planned expansion of the country’s only nuclear power station but also for the construction of small modular reactors was approved by Slovenia’s parliament on Thursday.
The strategy, which sets the national planning framework until 2050, creates the legal basis for starting procedures for Krško 2, the planned new unit at the Krško nuclear power station, Natural Resources Minister Uroš Brežan said on Thursday.
“The transition from the old to the new strategic document means we can start siting Krško 2,” he said.
The strategy does not mention a precise location for Krško 2, which will be the subject of subsequent administrative procedures.
Previous statements by officials indicate it is likely Krško 2 will be built adjacent to the existing installation.
The document, however, also opens the possibility of building multiple small modular reactors around the country, according to Brežan.
Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), with a capacity of up to 300 MW, are a technology still in its infancy but expected to mature within the next decade.
Westinghouse, which built Krško in the 1970s, is one of the companies developing SMRs and US officials have been lobbying in favour of SMRs in Slovenia for years.
Russia and China are the only countries with operating SMRs, but Slovenia has said any expansion of nuclear power will be based on Western technology.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
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