On 22th of October Piotr Naimski, the plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure, signed on behalf of Poland a 30-year agreement with the United States on civil nuclear power cooperation. The American side’s financial and technical proposal on the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant will be revealed in 18 months.

If the offer is accepted, the United States will play a role in Poland’s civil nuclear power for decades”

Poland’s Ambassador to the United States, Piotr Wilczek, as well as the head of the Ministry of Climate and Environment’s Nuclear Energy Department, Tomasz Nowacki, took part in the meeting. 

“This will serve as a basis for both our formal cooperation as well as eventual proposals by American firms regarding their participation in the 20 year-old Polish Nuclear Energy Program accepted by the government of October 20,” Piotr Naimski stated before signing the agreement. “This agreement does not presume a partnership in this twenty-year program. We will be making decisions based on the results of this eighteen-month-long work, and that is what lies ahead of us.”

“We are creating a Polish-American steering committee that will monitor the work’s progress. At the same time, we have initiated formal steps on our side that will transform the existing subsidiary, PGE EJ1, into the economic entity that will implement our program and, at least initially, will be 100% owned by the State Treasury,” the conference host explained. 

The office of the plenipotentiary has stated that the entire project will be coordinated by a joint Polish-American steering committee. In the coming months, representatives of both governments, financial agencies and institutions, as well as experts with experience in implementing strategic investments in the energy sector, will participate. The Committee will prepare a final conceptual and executive report, which will serve as the basis for the Polish government’s decision regarding choice of technology as well as the strategic partner that will implement the 20-year construction program for nuclear power plants in Poland.

“We expect the partner’s participation in the program, both capital and practical, in the form of taking up shares in a joint venture, as well. This is on the agenda for the next 18 months. A very important element of this offer for the Polish government will be the financing structure, which will be discussed, as we anticipate that the partner will have capital involvement in this investment. The partner will stay with us during the plant’s operational phase. This means that we will be responsible for the operation of this power plant for several decades,” the minister said before signing the document.

The minister explained that the nuclear power plant would ensure a stable energy supply. “It is also a matter of Poland’s becoming a country that is energy-independent and sovereign,” he argued.

The conference host revealed that after the agreement is signed, it will be approved by the Polish government and the two parties will exchange memos informing them of the approval, after which the contract will enter into force. “We expect it to enter into force in a very short time. It is a purely technical matter,” Naimski assured. “We will try to finalize the choice of technology and partner by the end of 2021,” he remarked.

“I cannot imagine that, over the span of 20 or 30 years, we would successfully complete Poland’s energy transformation without the participation of the nuclear energy sector. This issue is understandable for most of the companies and politicians who opt for a renewable, green order and transformation. It is becoming clearer to everyone that it will be possible if we simultaneously develop sources and technologies for the production of electricity that are stable and effective. If we exclude fossil fuels over the span of several decades, it seems that the alternative is the nuclear power industry. This has already accepted at the level of formulated strategies and investment plans,” Piotr Naimski said.

Poland’s participation will be a topic of negotiation 

According to Minister Naimski, the information presented by the media from sources in the U.S. Department of Energy regarding the 18 billion-dollar Polish contribution to the construction of a nuclear power plant with the United States has no basis in the agreement signed by Poland and the U.S. “This will be the subject of talks that I will not discuss for the time being,” the host of the event declared. The subject of negotiations will be the project management structure first, followed by the associated costs. The group will also to take into account the participation of Polish companies in the project. “Polish companies’ participation will increase along with the successive phases of the program, which will be implemented sequentially. We will start with two or three units and then add more,” said Naimski. “This will have an impact on the overall cost.”

The plenipotentiary’s office adds that in the long-term, the agreement in question defines the entire spectrum of areas of cooperation between Poland and the United States. This applies both to the support of involved economic entities as well as activities at the government level. These activities will concern, among others:

• regulations, research, personnel training,
• development of supply chains,
• campaigns aimed at increasing public awareness of civil nuclear energy,
• cooperation in nuclear energy projects in Europe.

“The possibility of building a nuclear power plant without state support, i.e. state aid, does not exist. It is a financial question on our side of the Polish part of this 20-year program. It is a matter of predicting this expenditure and preparing for incurring these costs,” he explained. “Another issue is the consent of the European Commission on state aid for this investment. We will discuss this with the European Commission once we have finalized the financing structure and budget,” he added.

“At the level of EU documentation, such as so-called taxonomy, there is an ongoing debate as to whether nuclear technology should be treated as supporting the green energy transformation or whether it is neutral. We are in favor of treating it as supportive,” said the minister in response to BiznesAlert.pl’s question on whether Polish nuclear power could be blocked at the EU level. “We do not expect the possibility of financing or co-financing nuclear energy at the European Union level. These will be sovereign decisions at the national level, as well as in Poland. Expenses will be incurred at this level, too. Countries that want to be purely green will understand perfectly well that if we treat the European Union as a single energy market, then it must balance itself. Those backing green  energy can only benefit from civil nuclear energy.