Polish development agency visits Gloucestershire to talk more on nuclear training plans
A group from Industria, the Polish government development agency, recently visited Berkeley Science & Technology Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire to discuss training the next generation of nuclear technicians.
It comes after a collaboration agreement was inked between Industria and Chiltern Vital Group (CVG), which is in the process of acquiring the SGS Berkeley Science & Technology Park site, and as Industria has just been given formal consent by the Polish government to apply for licences to build, own and operate the first two Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs) in Poland.
READ MORE: The Western Gateway hails UK Chancellor's announcement on Oldbury nuclear plans
The Berkeley site is a key part of the Western Gateway's vision for the Severn Edge low carbon energy campus.
Bringing together sites in Oldbury and Berkeley, ‘Severn Edge’ has seen over £100 million of investment in recent months from the UK Government’s Great British Nuclear and CVG leading a collaboration of private sector firms.
The collaboration between Industria and CVG envisages that the Polish workforce training would initially take place on the SGS Berkeley Science & Technology Park site.
Szczepan Ruman, CEO of Industria said: "We are very thankful for the opportunity to visit Berkeley and see the Severn Edge Low Carbon Energy Park.
"After receiving the formal approval from the Government to move ahead with our planned investment in two RR SMR units in Central Hydrogen Valley, we progress with the creation of Zero Emission Investment Zone in central Poland as well as with the investment in a new office park that would include a training centre for future SMR sector needs.
"Learning from the experiences of Berkeley Science & Technology Park helps us to better shape our own projects and achieve effects of scale by cooperation with Berkeley in the future."
Meanwhile, Chris Turner, CEO of Chiltern Vital Group, added: “Given the expected forthcoming GBN announcement of UK Government investment in approved SMR technologies, we are already seeing increased international investment interest in Berkeley.
"This is also manifesting itself in the growing interest of global AI/hyper data centre operators in entering into competitively priced, long term zero carbon energy supply offtake agreements.
“While an important part of the collaboration with Industria will focus on workforce education and training, of equal importance will be the attraction of multi-billion-pound inward investment in nuclear, AI and related technologies to Berkeley and Oldbury and to the Central Hydrogen Valley of Poland."
The meeting took place at the Berkeley Science & Technology Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire with representatives from the Western Gateway partnership, CVG, Bristol University and SGS College.
A so-called single small modular reactor (SMR) could reportedly power one million homes for 60 years whilst a UK-wide rollout could create 40,000 new jobs.
