Polish Briefing: Most local communities in Pomerania want a nuclear power plant in their neighborhood | Exodus of the Baltic Pipe team to a company that is to build Poland’s first NPP

What goes on in Poland on the 3rd of January.

Most local communities in Pomerania want a nuclear power plant in their neighbourhood

According to research conducted by the independent research agency PBS, 75 percent of the inhabitants of the Choczewo, Gniewino and Krokowa communes support the construction of a nuclear power plant in their neighborhood. This is an increase of 12 percentage points compared to the survey from a year earlier. The poll company conducted interviews with a group of over 2,000 respondents living in the area where the NPP is to be built.

– The support of the local community for the project is a very important factor, which is why we are so pleased with the result of the survey carried out by PBS. I am convinced that these results are influenced by the investor’s intensified activities in the region in the last year, thanks to which we are becoming part of the local community. Our information and education campaigns, dialogue with residents and local governments bring positive effects in the form of growing support for the project. The survey showed that 9 percent of respondents are definitely against the investment, of which 7 percent in the Choczewo commune – said Joanna Szostek, responsible for communication and relations at Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe.

Exodus of the Baltic Pipe team to a company that is to build a nuclear power plant in Poland

The CEO of Gaz-System, Marcin Chludziński, who replaced the outgoing Tomasz Stępień last year, introduced his people to the management board of Poland’s gas transmission network operator. Andrzej Kensbok, known from the management board of KGHM in the times of Chludziński, and Błażej Spychalski, former spokesman for the President of the Republic of Poland and advisor to the management board of PKN Orlen, became vice-presidents.

Marcin Kapkowski and Krzysztof Jackowski lost their positions as vice-presidents of Gaz-System. The latter resigned due to the transfer to the Polish Nuclear Power Plants, where Tomasz Stępień, former president of Gaz-System, is the CEO now. Therefore, the exodus of the team associated with the Baltic Pipe project and the former Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, is underway. The experts are leaving to the company that is to build Poland’s first nuclear power. The first reactor is to be built in 2033, and by 2043, 6-9 GW of this type of energy is to be added to the Polish energy mix.