As an energy crisis continues to roil Europe, Poland is moving forward with plans to generate nuclear power to help ensure energy security and bring down energy prices over the long term.
The plan moved another step closer after U.S. engineering firm Bechtel Corporation signed a memorandum of cooperation with affiliates of Japanese Toshiba for the delivery of steam turbines and generators for the first Polish nuclear power plant.
Toshiba simultaneously joined the group of American and Polish companies led by U.S. firms Bechtel and Westinghouse. In July last year, Westinghouse announced that it had begun working, together with Bechtel, on the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the nuclear energy program in Poland. The work on FEED, based on AP1000 technology, will be verified by the Polish government later this year.
Bechtel announced in April that it had signed agreements with 12 Polish companies on the potential development of two nuclear power plants in Poland.
The FEED study will include a draft of the plan to construct three AP1000 Westinghouse reactors and auxiliary facilities near Lubiatowo-Kopalino in northern Poland on the Baltic coast, a location selected by Polish Nuclear Power Plants (PEJ).
The plan will include an estimated cost of all three nuclear reactors, with the report expected to be ready in June.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government will present a package of financing proposals to the Polish government in August. According to the Polish Nuclear Energy Program and Poland’s Energy Policy until 2040, the first reactor will be operational by 2033 with a capacity of 1 to 1.6 gigawatt hours (GWh). The nuclear program involves the construction of six reactors with a capacity of up to 9 GWh.
