A project agreement has already been concluded for the first Polish nuclear power plant, and Andrzej Domański from the Civic Coalition (KO) notes that the KO did not want to terminate this deal. The coalition believes there is space for two large nuclear power plants and SMRs.
Since the Law and Justice lost its majority vote after the recent election, the government is to be formed by the Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the New Left. Before the elections, a member of the Green Party, which is part of KO, Urszula Zielińska, spoke about the Polish nuclear power plant.
„We need to find out how binding the agreement is, and what penalties we face for breaking it, withdrawing from it,” she said in an interview with Radio Zet.
„We agree with Donald Tusk that today the plans related to nuclear energy have one big drawback. They do not have an economic finance account. There is simply no business plan,” continued the MP in a pre-election interview.
On October 20, 2023, Andrzej Domański, a future KO MP, spoke about the program of the Civic Coalition and the possible plan to create a government.
„We have presented a very concrete plan for Poland’s energy transition in which we assume that by 2030 68 percent of energy in Poland will be generated from renewable energy sources,” Domański said in an interview with Radio Zet.
He also presented a more firm position of the Civic Coalition on nuclear energy in Poland.
„We believe there is space in the system for two large nuclear power plants. Just like we see in the system a place for SMRs,” Domański explained during the interview.
When Bogdan Rymanowski, the inerviewer, asked whether the agreements concluded by the Law and Justice government would be honored by the Coalition, he answered:
„All contracts will be checked, it is quite natural but as I said two large projects. ( … ) There is no discussion, absolutely no conversation about undermining these agreements (on the nuclear power plant),” he promised.
The project agreement, which is at the heart of the topic, is an agreement between Polish Nuclear Power Plants (PEJ) and Bechtel and Westinghouse, an American contractor. It defines what the project of the first Polish nuclear power plant should look like and was announced on September 27, 2023. It is expected the plant will be built within a year and a half. The plan is to build another nuclear power plant, but the contractor has not yet been selected.
SMRs are small nuclear reactors, an innovative technology that has not yet been used anywhere. Poland’s largest companies have launched their SMR projects, including Orlen Synthos, KGHM and Industria, all in cooperation with Western companies.
Radio Zet / Marcin Karwowski