Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed into law a bill providing PLN60bn ($15.5bn) in financing for Poland’s first NPP. The purpose of the law is to “enable the preparation and implementation of the investment in the first nuclear power plant in Poland”, according to the President’s website. The funding was approved by the government in January and the bill was approved by parliament in February.
The funding will cover 30% of state-owned project company Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe’s (PEJ) capitalisation, with the rest to be sourced from foreign borrowing. PEJ expects credit institutions, including the US Export-Import Bank, to provide the debt financing. The project is expected to cost €35-45bn ($36.4-46.8bn). However, investment is conditional on European Union approval. The European Commission in December 2024 began an investigation into whether Poland’s plans are in line with European Union’s competition rules.
PEJ said it is also advancing negotiations with the Westinghouse-Bechtel consortium, which was selected in late 2023 to lead the project. Discussions continue regarding the engineering, procurement and construction contract.
The updated Polish Nuclear Energy Programme (PPEJ – Program Polskiej Energetyki Jądrowej) involves the construction of two NPPs with a total capacity of 6-9 GWe, with PEJ as an investor and operator. It envisages the start of commercial operation of the first unit in 2036, followed by commercial operation of the next two units in 2037 and 2038. This represents a three-year delay compared with the previous PPEJ released in 2020 which expected the first plant to be operational in 2033.
In November 2022, the then Polish government selected Westinghouse AP1000 reactor technology for construction at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Choczewo municipality in Pomerania. An agreement setting a plan for the delivery of the plant was signed in May 2023 by Westinghouse, Bechtel and PEJ.
Poland’s Ministry of Climate & Environment in July issued a decision-in-principle for PEJ to construct the plant. In September 2023, an engineering services agreement was signed with Westinghouse and Bechtel to finalise a site-specific design for a three-unit NPP.
Bełchatów and Konin are two preferred locations being considered for the second NPP, according to Paveł Gajda, director of the nuclear energy department at the Ministry of Industry. He noted that the list of locations has been limited to those in which coal-fired power plants are currently located.
