The nuclear flip-flop in Bulgaria may happen in Poland after the election

The new Bulgarian government drops two new nuclear reactors from France’s EDF, but sticks to Americans from Westinghouse. Poles are also talking to everyone at once, and parliamentary elections are about to take place.

The Bulgarian government, which has been in office since April 2023, has decided to abandon the project to build two new EPR reactors with the French EDF at the Belene Power Plant. NEK is to resell the purchased equipment to the Ukrainians and cancel the tender. The French project, launched in 2018, was supposed to replace the Russian one, which was blocked in 2013. The Bulgarians have not yet given up on another project they are implementing with the American Westinghouse at the Kozloduy Power Plant, where two AP1000 reactors are to be built. However, they have signed a memorandum of understanding on this issue.

Also, Poles are waiting for the parliamentary election scheduled for October 15, 2023. It is not known what the result will be, because the main political parties: Law and Justice and the Civic Coalition are head-to-head, achieving the support of about 30 percent of the surveyed voters. Only the Green Party, which is part of the Civic Coalition, openly opposes the atom.

However, Poland also has many projects with different partners: a nuclear power plant in Pomerania with Westinghouse, a project described as “private” in Greater Poland with Korea’s KHNP, and another state-owned project open to different technologies in a second location that has not yet been announced. In addition, various state-owned Polish companies are interested in small nuclear reactor technologies. It is worth recalling that before 2015, Poland had an established nuclear cooperation with the French EDF, which was replaced with America’s Westinghouse.

SeeNews / Wojciech Jakóbik