In 2025, Slovenia is no closer to a second nuclear power plant unit than it was two years ago, when government officials were publicly expressing their scepticism about the construction of a second nuclear power plant unit. Only renewable and unreliable energy sources were, and apparently still are, preferred.
One among the many government men and women sceptical about the construction of the second reactor of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (JEK2) was the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Energy, Bojan Kumer, MSc. Two years ago, he backed up his caution or hesitation about the second reactor project by stating that small nuclear reactor technology could replace the existing, mature technology within two years.
He said: “In the last two years, small modular reactor (SMR) technology has advanced very rapidly. If it maintains this momentum, it could replace mature technology, i.e. conventional nuclear reactors, within two years.”
As the website Jedrska.si (Nuclear.si) pointed out, Minister Kumer was completely wrong. Two years later, they write, “not even a prototype of a small modular reactor has been built so far.”
Small modular reactors are a promising technology for the future. As Jedrska.si explains, their name already suggests their most basic characteristics – that they are smaller in size and built in a modular way, i.e. that the building blocks can be constructed in factories and then assembled on site. One of the definitions of small modular reactors is that they are limited to 300 MW of power.
Because of their small size, they are expected to be cheaper than larger reactors, but it is not clear at what cost they will generate electricity. According to Jedrska.si, there is currently one small modular reactor in operation in Russia, named Akademik Lomosov. It is a floating nuclear power plant with two 32 MW units. And, according to World nuclear news, the HTR-PM small modular reactor began its commercial operation on the 26th of December in China. Widespread commercial deployment is not yet expected. Projects in the West are still deep in development.
Ž. K.
