Poland’s Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski said in a radio interview that the offer was being prepared by American companies and “financed entirely by the US side.”
Poland and the United States in October signed an intergovernmental deal to work together in developing nuclear energy in Poland.
The deal was inked as Poland’s President Andrzej Duda attended a summit of Three Seas Initiative countries in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
During the summit, Poland’s Naimski held talks with then-US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.
The talks culminated in the signing of the high-profile bilateral agreement amid plans to develop a civil nuclear power industry in Poland.
Under the document, within 18 months Poland and the United States were expected to come up with a joint report on the basis of which the Polish government would make a final choice of international partner to carry out a programme to develop nuclear energy in the country, officials said at the time.
Naimski told Polish private radio broadcaster TOK FM on Tuesday that the agreement specified "how the Americans will prepare an offer for the Polish government.”
He added that this included "both a technological proposal and an offer regarding the financing structure."
"This offer will be presented to us at the end of the process, and it will be up to our government to consider and possibly accept it," Naimski said.
The United States pledged to help Poland develop its civil nuclear power sector and 5G technology, under a joint statement signed by the presidents of the two countries in Washington in June last year.
After talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House, then-US leader Donald Trump told a press conference back then that the two countries were “working to conclude an agreement that would facilitate Poland’s development of nuclear energy plants.”
“They are going to be purchasing with one of our very big, very good companies technology to do civilian nuclear energy,” Trump said at the time.
And in a joint statement, Duda and Trump declared that their two countries were pleased to “partner on supplying Poland with U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas and to begin a new chapter of our energy cooperation by partnering to develop Poland’s civil nuclear power sector.”
Poland and the United States in June 2019 signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in civil nuclear energy.
Meanwhile, in December last year, France officially said it was interested in helping Poland develop its nuclear power sector, according to Polish website biznesalert.pl.
In February last year, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Polish government spokesman said his country was in talks with the United States, France and Japan to help it build its first nuclear power plant.
Piotr Müller told state broadcaster TVP at the time that negotiations on developing nuclear power in the country were shifting into higher gear, with the final choice of technology expected to be made sometime in 2021.
Müller added that Poland’s first nuclear power plant would be up and running within a decade once construction got under way.
Poland's Naimski said in mid-2019 that nuclear power would account for around 20 percent of Poland’s energy mix by 2045.
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Source: PAP, energetyka24.com