The Earth Society has released the contents of the justification for the Internal Security Agency’s (ABW) negative opinion on the construction of small nuclear reactors.
The Society for Earth has released photos of the justification for the negative opinion by the Internal Security Agency in the case of BWRX-300 Stawy Monowskie.
According to the Act of 29 June 2011 on the preparation and implementation of investments in the field of nuclear energy facilities and accompanying investments, prior to the issuance of a decision-in-principle on nuclear energy infrastructure, it is necessary to, among others, obtain the opinion of the head of ABW. On its basis, either a positive or negative decision is made. The documents revealed by the Society said the head of the ABW identified significant shortcomings in meeting the requirements, specifically article 3B, paragraph 1 point 2 of the Act. According to that provision, the application for a decision should contain a description of the ownership structure of the applicant. In this regard, on June 27, 2023, the head of the ABW called on the Minister of Climate and Environment to fill the gaps by July 31, 2023. Counterintelligence indicated that the applicant should attach the agreements of companies BWRX-300 Stawy Monowskie and Orlen Synthos Green Energy (OSGE) and the statutes of both companies.
The Agency received a response on July 17, 2023. However, the documents were considered insufficient to investigate the case. On July 31, 2023, the Minister was again called upon to supplement the application by submitting the original OSGE agreement concluded on May 18, 2022 and all resolutions of the General Meeting of shareholders of OSGE amending the company Agreement, the full minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders of OSGE of July 7, 2022, and documentation, the name of which was classified in the justification.
The Agency received the requested documents on August 11, 2023, but the counterintelligence still considered the submitted material to be insufficient. According to the justification, on August 22, 2023, the ABW again called on the Minister to complete the applications, but it was kept secret what documents were missing from the application. The supplement was received on August 29, 2023.
The submitted documentation still did not allow the head of the ABW to issue an opinion. On September 29, 2023, the Minister of Climate and Environment was again summoned to supplement the application by providing responses from the management and supervisory bodies of entities overseeing the applicant to the questions contained in the summons. The OSGE’s position was received by the Ministry on October 9, 2023, while the response from the management board of Orlen was received by the ABW on October 26, 2023, but the service did not obtain the position of Orlen’s supervisory board.
Faced with this, the head of the ABW found that the collected information was enough to issue an opinion.
„In light of the received information, it can be concluded that in this case there were circumstances indicating a negative impact of the investment on the internal security of the state,” the decision justification says.
The justification was supplemented, but that information was included in a classified document whose name has been censored.
As part of their joint company, Orlen and Synthos plan to build small nuclear reactors (SMRS), one of which was to be built in Oświęcim. In 2023, they received a decision-in-principle, but according to the information provided by the Polityka weekly, it was issued despite the negative opinion of the head of the ABW.
Society for the Earth / Marcin Karwowski