On 28 January, Poland's government adopted a revised nuclear programme which indicates that the country is ready to go ahead with its plans to build the country's first nuclear power plant. It is expected to go online in 2025.
The government's intention to go for the nuke option had already been flagged up in 2005, with a deadline of 2020, but preparations slowed down in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the global financial slowdown.
Poland has gone for this option to better balance its energy production, which is heavily dependent on coal production, and to conform with the tightening environmental requirements of the European Union.
The revised programme defines a plan to construct two plants consisting of two to three reactors each with a total installed capacity of 3000 MW. The first NPP is expected to be finished between 2025 and 2030 and the second one by the end of 2035.
Besides outlining the construction timetable, the new nuclear programme includes the objectives of the nuclear programme, an economic justification, a financing programme and the site selection procedure. The timetable indicates that a site selection process and a tendering process should be finalised by the end of 2016. It also fixes a deadline of 2018 for a final investment decision on the entire nuclear programme. The construction of both NPPs is estimated to cost about 100 billion zloty (€23.7 billion).
Three locations have already been earmarked for the construction of the first NPP, all located in Northern Poland, namely Choczewo, Gaski and Zarnowiec, but the prospect of construction of a NPP in these areas has encountered public opposition.