Nuclear power will be capable of generating 38.4 percent of Poland’s electric power needs by 2043, and should raise the country’s GDP by over 1 percent, a report by the Polish Institute of Economics (PIE) has forecast.
The report, titled “Economic aspects of nuclear investment in Poland — influence on business, the labor market and local communities,” also says that the nuclear energy program will generate 40,000 jobs over the next five decades.
According to the most optimistic scenario, 70 percent of the value of the investments in nuclear energy should be realized by Polish companies, and the total investment realized by them could reach close to $40 billion.
According to PIE’s calculations, the construction of nuclear power stations creates 33 percent added value for the economy compared to coal-fired stations, and 285 percent more than gas-fired power plants.
Nuclear energy could be a major growth catalyst for Polish industry, depending on the ability of individual branches of it to seek synergies. According to PIE, the best prepared sectors in this regard are the chemical, engineering and metallurgy sectors. The least prepared are the logistics, machine tools, and service sectors.
The Polish nuclear energy program assumes Poland will base its nuclear power output on the tried and tested large PWR reactors. It is planned to activate the first nuclear power block in 2033. Further blocks will be added successively every two to three years until the country has six blocks with 9 GW capacity in the 2040s.
