Plans for Poland's first nuclear power plant advance

(Patria) - Polish and American officials signed an agreement in Warsaw on Wednesday to advance the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant, AP reported.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the agreement to build the plant at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Pomerania region near the Baltic Sea the beginning of a new chapter for Poland and described nuclear energy as a stable and clean source of energy.

„The only clean, stable source of energy that is technologically proven and verified in terms of safety is nuclear energy, which today has its big day,” he said at the ceremony.
Morawiecki's government announced last year that it had chosen the US as a partner for the project.

A consortium consisting of Westinghouse and Bechtel signed an agreement with the Polish state-owned
company overseeing the nuclear program, Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ).
The planned location is about 280 kilometers from the border with Germany, which closed its last remaining nuclear reactors in April. Last year, four German states closest to Poland said they opposed the Polish plan.

Poland plans to spend $40 billion on building two nuclear power plants with three reactors each, the last of which is to be commissioned in 2043. The deal with the US is for the first three reactors of the Pomerania plant, which officials say should start producing electricity in 2033.

Poland has also signed agreements with South Korea to build a second nuclear power plant as it advances its nuclear energy plans.

Poland has been planning the construction of nuclear power plants for decades to replace coal-fired power plants. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Moscow's use of energy to exert economic and political pressure on European nations has given urgency to Poland's search for alternative energy.