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Europe's Largest Coal-fired Power Country to Embrace Nuclear Power
In recent weeks, Poland has decided to close its electricity generation gap by building between 6GW and 9GW of new nuclear capacity. However, the first nuclear plants are not expected to be built until 2026. The original plan was to start construction around 2020 and have Poland's first nuclear power plant operational by 2025. Despite the delays, Poland still intends to include nuclear power generation in its electricity mix as a long-term, stable baseload power source.Polish officials said the delay was due to the restructuring of the country's Ministry of Energy and the close relationship between the current Polish government and the country's coal industry. However, in June this year, Polish President Andrzej Duda confirmed the country's nuclear construction plan using American reactor technology after visiting the United States. Duda also said that the two countries will soon begin discussing the specific reactor design to be used in Poland.
Poland plans to build six reactors by 2045, with construction starting as soon as 2026, Michal Kurtyka, Poland's climate minister and president of COP24, said on June 15 at a Nuclear Energy Agency webinar on Poland's nuclear program.
"Our traditional energy (coal) is close to exhaustion, so our energy transition is also part of the EU Green Deal and the EU COVID-19 recovery plan," Kurtyka said, noting that Poland needs baseload capacity to replace coal-fired plants that are currently nearing the end of their lifespan.
"Our energy transition will include new nuclear power and expanded renewable energy generation," he said. "This includes the use of offshore wind and local energy systems such as photovoltaics in the Baltic Sea." Poland also has a diversification agenda for its gas supply.
"We have 100 Polish companies involved in nuclear power projects around the world, which provides a good basis for building our own nuclear power system," the climate minister said. "Poland already has a research reactor, but not a reactor that can generate electricity."
He said Poland needed a solid "financial foundation" to make its nuclear power program competitive, and "getting the right funding sources is key to the feasibility of new nuclear power construction plans." "We have not built our own nuclear power plants, so we will look to international cooperation to realize our nuclear program."
"We planned to introduce nuclear energy from the 1980s, but the transition period after 1989 was in a bad economic situation and Poland did not need excess energy," Kurtyka said. Therefore, openly discussing the issue of new nuclear energy in Poland is the beginning of a new dialogue. Kurtyka said that discussions on the site selection of new reactors have begun and new nuclear construction has been approved by the public. "Most Poles are in favor of Poland's nuclear energy program and see opportunities in nuclear energy.
One reason is that the Polish government is carrying out a gradual and voluntary transition away from the country's mainly coal-based electricity production system. The first nuclear power plant is likely to be built in Zarnowiec in northern Poland, where the country started building four VVER-440s in the 1980s before abandoning the project.
Another possible site is Belchatow in central Poland, which currently has the world's largest lignite ("bituminous") power plant and a coal mine.
Kurtyka said Poland is looking not only at conventional large reactors but also small modular reactors (SMRs).
The country is also considering advanced reactors such as high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) that provide both heat and electricity. These units are suitable for Poland's chemical industry. "It makes SMRs competitive and provides the opportunity to achieve scale and produce (a series of reactors)," Kurtyka said.
Nuclear energy is a possible source of industrial heat for Poland, said William D. Magwood, director of the National Energy Administration, during the webinar. "It remains important for Poland to focus on the heat generation aspect of HTGR technology because the overall system cost must be considered when considering the cost of nuclear power," Magwood said.
"In the European agreement and the Paris climate agreement, our goal is climate neutrality," Kurtyka added. Regarding HTGRs, Poland is in contact with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. "We have evidence that this technology is working in Japan and elsewhere," Kurtyka said, noting that Poland has 500 energy storage systems that could be used as part of the clean energy transition.
In June, Kurtyka wrote an open letter to the European Commission, calling for nuclear energy investment as part of the green energy transition funding. In the letter, Kurtyka reiterated Poland's commitment to renewable energy and nuclear technology. In an open letter to EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simons, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans and Valdis Dombrovskis, Polish Climate Minister Michal Kurtyka said that Poland remains committed to pursuing climate neutrality and it intends to support this goal by implementing renewable energy and nuclear technology, drawing on the practices and experiences of other EU member states. "Poland remains committed to the pursuit of climate neutrality, and it intends to support this goal by implementing renewable energy and nuclear technologies, while exploiting the valuable synergies between them," Kurtyka wrote.
He stressed that Poland's current baseload electricity generation depends largely on the combustion of fossil fuels, and that Poland's geographical conditions prevent the development of stable renewable energy sources such as hydropower. At the same time, he noted: "In the late 1980s, the opportunity to deploy nuclear energy was lost due to an arbitrary decision."
Kurtyka estimated that these circumstances, combined with the growing energy needs faced by a large population and industry, put Poland at a "different starting point" from other EU partners. He continued: "That is why Poland intends to follow the good examples and experiences of other Member States and intends to develop nuclear energy to replace baseload electricity generation provided by coal with zero-emission, stable production at an affordable cost for Polish citizens and the economy."
Kurtyka pointed out that while half of the EU countries use or intend to develop nuclear energy as part of their energy transition, this technology provides almost half of the EU's low-emission energy production, but is excluded from the broad financial provision that could be made for the green transition. This means that the energy sector is not getting a fair shake.
He noted: "Depriving the nuclear energy sector of investment opportunities related to the green transition is inconsistent with the principle of energy sovereignty of the Member States and violates the obligations under the Euratom Treaty to promote the development of the EU nuclear energy sector."
"I am not questioning the green transition, but asking a fundamental question about its overall technological orientation and principles, once again emphasizing the necessary role that nuclear energy must play in a clean energy system," he wrote.
"We therefore call on the European Commission, as the guardian of the treaties (including the Euratom Treaty), to ensure that the EU's energy and climate policy develops in a technology-neutral and evidence-based manner, including under the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Financing Plan."
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