With the signing of a contract between the Polish government and a consortium of U.S. companies, including Westinghouse and Bechtel, Poland’s first nuclear power plant moved forward on Wednesday.
The nuclear plant will be built in the Pomerania region near the Baltic Sea and is being billed as part of Poland’s effort to wean itself off fossil fuels.
The deal with state-owned Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ) will see $40 billion spent on two plants, each with three reactors. The first of the three reactors is expected to come online in 2033, while the entire project is expected to be operational a decade later, the Associated Press reports.
The Polish government sees nuclear power as a key element of “clean energy,” while also serving as a way to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies.
“I would like to make a very strong appeal: we cannot afford to reject nuclear energy,” Anna ?ukaszewska-Trzeciakowska, Poland’s secretary of state for strategic energy infrastructure, told the Energy Day 2023 conference earlier this month.
“Without nuclear energy, large scale and SMRs [small modular reactors], we will not be able to achieve our climate goals and ensure our energy security,” she added.
Poland is not alone in Europe on the nuclear energy front, which has been a divisive issue for the European Union.
France, too, is in favour of nuclear power, while Germany and Spain do not want nuclear power to count as “renewable”. Pro-nuclear EU member states are aiming for 150 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity in the bloc’s electricity mix by 2050.