Nuclear power in Poland
With the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions for environmental, climate, and economic reasons, the country continues to explore deployment of nuclear reactors for electricity generation and industrial process heat.
[7] In the 1980s, the Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant was under construction, but the project was abandoned for a mix of reasons, including questions about the profitability of the enterprise, financing issues, and opposition from environmental activists.
Poland would invest 22% with these other countries into the project, the Visaginas NPP main site would have been under principal construction by early 2016 with necessary prerequisite planning, financing, regulatory agency approval and logistical ground work in terms of infrastructure modernization and expansion finished and in place by 2015.
[18] A proposal has been also raised to retrofit thermal plants in Poland by replacing their coal boilers with SMRs, while preserving their existing generation and distribution infrastructure, which would reduce upfront capital costs by 28-35% and avoid emissions of 200 billion tons of CO2.
[19] In September 2023, Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe formally signed an outline agreement with Westinghouse and Bechtel for the construction of Poland's first commercial nuclear power plant.
In 2021, the functions of PGE EJ1 were transferred to a new state-owned entity, Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), which was charged with developing 6 to 9 GWe of proven, large-scale, Generation III(+) pressurized water reactors[23] such as the AP1000,[24] APR-1400,[25][26] and EPR.
[23] On December 22, 2021, PEJ announced the preferred location for Poland's first commercial nuclear power plant as the Baltic Sea coastal commune of Choczewo in Wejherowo County, Pomeranian Voivodeship at a site called Lubiatowo-Kopalino.
Private chemical industry producer Synthos (owned by Michał Sołowow) plans deployment of a GE Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR in its plant in Oświęcim.
[30] In August 2021 Synthos has been joined by ZE PAK coal power station (owned by Zygmunt Solorz), with both planning construction of six 300 MW reactors.
[34] In 2022 KGHM, one of Poland's largest consumers of electricity, declared that shifting from coal to nuclear power is the only way for European industries to grow and remain competitive.
[35][36] In 2023 KGHM and joint venture Orlen Synthos Green Energy were granted the government permit under General Opinions on their chosen reactor technologies.
