Bando: Poland’s nuclear project is to prove that it is possible to build on time and within budget

Government Plenipotentiary dispels doubts about the construction deadlines of Poland’s first nuclear power plant. The new deadline for pouring concrete is 2028, two years after the original one. Then the work has to go according to plan in terms of time and cost.

“In fact, the Polish nuclear program started last year and I hope and am convinced that this largest investment in post-war Poland will be implemented within an exemplary timeframe, which will be a beacon for all other states to show that it can be built on time and within budget,” said Maciej Bando, the Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure at the European Economic Congress in Katowice.

“Our plans in terms of timeliness involve two key dates. The most important date is the pouring of nuclear concrete in 2028. We would like to divide the scope of responsibility this year. Until 2028, the greatest burden lies on the administration, regulators, those who prepare accompanying investments, and after this date it is already the time for the investor and the contractor,” Maciej Bando explained.

“The first reactor in seven years and the next ones every year. This is the construction cycle, which includes the nuclear fuel loading cycle, the entire acceptance and approval cycle. This can not be done if we do not take care of the administration,” said the minister.

“We will try to create a situation where at the beginning of the 2040s we will be a successful leader in the implementation of this program,” summed up Maciej Bando.

The Polish Nuclear Power Program assumes that concrete will be poured under the first reactor in 2026. However, it has to be updated.

Compiled by Wojciech Jakóbik