Climate Ministry waiting for a municipality that will host nuclear waste storage site

The Ministry of Climate and Environment is waiting for municipalities that are interested in the construction of a radioactive waste landfill. The plant is to be part of the accompanying infrastructure for the first nuclear power plant in Poland. Applications can be submitted until June 30, 2024.

“By June 30, 2024, we should know the municipality candidates that will be interested in building a radioactive waste landfill for the needs of nuclear energy in Poland. We are waiting for their applications to the program,” said Paweł Pytlarczyk, Director of the Department of Nuclear Energy, during the IX European Congress of Local Governments in Mikołajki.

Director Pytlarczyk stressed that an important issue is the education of residents about the construction process and how such a facility will operate later on. “Recent opinion polls have shown that the majority of the local community supports the construction of the nuclear power plant. It will never be one hundred percent, but we want to educate citizens all the time and inform them about the details of the project. Transparency is the foundation,” emphasized Paweł Pytlarczyk, Director of the Department of Nuclear Energy.

Currently, there is one radioactive waste landfill in the country. It is the National Radioactive Waste Landfill (KSOP Różan), which is located in the town of Różan nad Narewą (Masovian Voivodeship). It stores liquid and solid waste, previously processed in the technological facilities of the Radioactive Waste Disposal Plant in Otwock. They are a by-product of the production and use of radioactive isotopes in nuclear medicine, industry and scientific research.

“Radioactive waste is not necessarily a barrel of green grease, as we often imagine when we don’t really know much about it. Meanwhile, we may encounter waste in everyday life, for example, a glove used for research in a hospital or an element of a pipeline through which a liquid containing radioactive isotopes flowed,” explained Aneta Korczyc, Director of the Department of Radioactive Waste Disposal in Otwock, during the European Congress of local governments in Mikołajki.

The new facility is intended to be used exclusively for the storage of low-and medium-level short-lived radioactive waste and radioactive sources, both from nuclear energy, as well as industry, medicine and scientific research activities.

Jędrzej Stachura