Officials from Donald Tusk’s new Polish administration of the Baltic coast region have questioned the location of Poland’s first nuclear power station in Lubiatowo-Kopalino and appealed for an alternative site.
The government representative for the Pomeranian region, Voivode Beata Rutkiewicz, has the backing of the local authority in seeking the change of the planned location for the first nuclear power station in Poland, citing reasons of “degradation of the natural environment.”
Her office denies that the government has decided to change the location of the nuclear power station planned near Gdańsk but admitted that Rutkiewicz believes the government should review the matter and take a final decision after a detailed analysis.
This view is in line with the promise of Donald Tusk’s government to conduct an audit of all major investment programs planned by the previous conservative Law and Justice (PiS) administration, although at the same time, the prime minister has made it clear he wants the nuclear power station building program to proceed.
According to Jacek Sasin MP, a former minister for state assets in the last PiS government, delaying the project would “derail a key energy security project for Poland.”
“Any obstruction in this regard is to play on the same team as Putin who wants to make Europe dependent on his gas and oil,” Sasin wrote on X.
“Changing the location of the nuclear power plant – even to a nearby site – means losing several years and millions of złotys. We already know that there will be no nuclear power plant in 2033. We are fighting for 2035. Further delays would be a disaster,” energy expert Jakub Wiech said.
Journalist Robert Tomaszewski from “Polityka Insight” also took to X to argue that “the change of location for this project at this time would be the death of it,” because it would imply yet another delay and a waste of millions of euros too. “That would be an energy security and geopolitical catastrophe,” he concluded.
The previous government signed a deal with U.S. company Westinghouse for the construction of the first atomic power station due for completion in 2033.
The Polish Nuclear Energy Program aims to establish an installed capacity of 6-9 gigawatts using proven pressurized water reactors.
