Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday, Jacek Sasin also said that Poland needed to embrace nuclear power to ensure energy security and economic growth, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland's state-run PGE group and the privately-owned ZE PAK company on Tuesday signed an agreement to set up a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to represent Poland in talks with South Korea’s KHNP on plans to build a nuclear power plant in Pątnów, western Poland.
Sasin, who is also Poland’s minister for state assets, told reporters: “Access to cheap and safe energy, such as nuclear energy, is necessary to ensure Poland’s fast growth and the competitiveness of our economy.”
South Korea to help build nuclear power plant in western Poland
The new PGE-ZE PAK SPV will represent Poland at all stages of the project, and will conduct a feasibility study, a siting study and an environmental impact assessment for the planned nuclear power plant, officials said.
Later, the PGE-ZE PAK SPV will form another company together with South Korea’s KHNP that will be controlled by Poland, according to officials.
This Polish-South Korean company will be tasked with building the nuclear power plant in Pątnów.
According to an initial analysis, Pątnów could house at least two South Korean APR1400 reactors with a combined capacity of 2.8 MW, officials said.
These facilities could produce up to 22 TWh of power a year, or 12 percent of Poland’s current energy consumption, reporters were told.
The first unit is provisionally slated for launch in 2035, the PAP news agency reported.
Site for 'second government-funded nuclear station' to be 'unveiled in autumn'
Sasin commented: “Today we are taking the next step on this difficult road, but one that is good for Poland, on which we embarked a few months ago. A few months ago, a [Polish-South Korean] project was initiated to jointly build a nuclear power plant that will supplement the governmental project.”
He noted that Poland’s government had approved plans to build two nuclear power plants.
He told reporters: “We can say that today one of these two plants has become reality, in the sense that the project is under way in cooperation with a foreign partner, an American partner.”
Sasin said the plan for "the second government-funded nuclear station still needs to be finalised.”
He added: “I believe that the site for this second nuclear power plant will be unveiled in the autumn.”
Polish-South Korean 'business project' supported by the government
Sasin said: "These two government-funded nuclear stations will be finely supplemented by this [Polish-South Korean] project, which is a business project, but one supported by the government.”
Sasin declared that the PGE/ZE PAK-KHNP project “ties in with the government’s energy strategy and energy policy” and “will form an important part of Poland’s energy security,” the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvpparlament.pl