New government to investigate Orlen’s SMRs

Today, Donald Tusk, the opposition’s candidate for Prime Minister, met with the potential ministers of his new government. Tusk declared he would establish a committee on urgent problems, including SMRs for Orlen.

The Polish Press Agency (PAP) has reported that today Donald Tusk met with potential ministers of the Civic Coalition, Poland 2050 and the New Left. The potential new prime minister said that during today’s meeting he outlined expectations in relation to candidates for ministers. The topic was “the gigantic money that Law and Justice decided to spend in the weeks and days after the election,” PAP quoted Tusk.

According to the Polish Press Agency, the Tusk government, if appointed, will establish teams to solve specific problems. Decisions on Orlen’s small nuclear power plants (SMRs) have been identified as one of the most pressing issues.

“I am talking about an unprecedented and ruinous exchange of blows between Orlen and a company created by Orlen and a private Polish businessman. This company is to build small nuclear reactors. Mateusz Morawiecki’s government made an unexpected decision contrary to the opinion of the Internal Security Agency,” Tusk said as quoted by PAP.

On December 7, the Climate Ministry issued a decision-in-principle on the SMRs that are to be built by Orlen. We are talking about the construction of small reactors in six locations: Włocławek, Stawy Monowskie, Stalowa Wola, Ostrołęka, Nowa Huta and Dąbrowa Górnicza. Next week the current government is to ask for a vote of confidence.

According to the Polityka weekly, the Internal Security Agency issued a negative opinion on the construction of the SMRs. Details are confidential for security reasons. The decision of the counterintelligence referred to Orlen Synthos Green Energy. The company stated that it would demand the declassification of the Agency’s opinion.

“Taking into account the moment the information emerged and the accompanying media actions, typical for many other situations involving the current Internal Security Agency management, we believe that these actions are aimed at influencing the Minister of Climate and Environment and making it difficult for the Ministry to issue the decision-in-principle,” the company said in a statement.

Polska Agencja Prasowa / Orlen Synthos Green Energy / Marcin Karwowski