An adjacent pumped-storage plant was to act as a load balancer and energy reservoir to ensure continued power delivery during reactor maintenance.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, there were plans to make modifications in order to bring the plant to Western safety standards, as well as install reactor automation equipment from Siemens AG.

There was some official public discussion concerning the localization of the power plant, but it was interrupted by the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981.

Some nationwide organizations such as Ruch Wolność i Pokój joined the protest and were responsible for its most drastic forms, including roadblocks and a 63-day hunger strike.

Several public figures spoke against completing the project, including the leader of Solidarity, Lech Wałęsa.

Protesters also cited the negative assessment of the plant's security by two employees of the National Atomic Energy Agency.

Among the information in the disseminated leaflets and posters, there were false claims of the reactors being of the same design as those in Chernobyl, "deep tectonic movements" which would cause the failure of the pumped-storage reservoir and flooding, and supposed inevitable radioactive contamination of the lake due to an open-ended cooling system.

[5] He claimed the plant would be redundant in the Polish energy grid, had questionable economy of operation and was of unclear safety.

The decision was motivated predominantly by the public outcry and the need to increase political support for the newly formed government, even though the supplied official reasons did not cite them as an important factor.

This contributed to a lack of interest from prospective investors, and several developments (including a gas power station) were canceled.

Sources close to the proponents of the power plant claim that the losses resulting from mismanagement of the abandoned property could be as high as $2 billion.

[7] The abandonment of the plant meant a large increase in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, since electricity in Poland mainly comes from coal.

To prevent the uncontrolled growth of flora in such conditions, an ecological engineering project was started to introduce warm-water herbivore fish species, such as grass carps.

With growing demand for electricity, the traditional power plants burning coal are generating more and more environmental problems.

[9] In 2008, a program called Polish energy policy until 2030[10] was approved, which outlines plans for two nuclear power plants to be built by 2020.