In order to implement the energy transition, Poland is moving into nuclear power and building a large number of large and small reactors. Hardly anyone is afraid of environmental damage – they are more afraid that the plans from Warsaw will not work. By A. Hreczuk.
In order to implement the energy transition, Poland is moving into nuclear power and building a large number of large and small reactors. Hardly anyone is afraid of environmental damage – they are more afraid that the plans from Warsaw will not work.
White dunes, fine-grained sand, pine forest. Silence, broken only by birds and the sound of waves. A small paradise for people who long for peace and nature, located between the two villages of Kopanino and Lubiatów, about 90 kilometers from Gdansk. But it will soon be over: in three years, construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant is scheduled to begin right here.
350 hectares of forest are to be cleared to make room for kilometers of pipelines. The cooling water for the reactor will be channeled through it to the power plant and back into the sea. In addition, a pier is to be built through which the material for the construction of the power plant can be transported by ship.
The street sign of the village of Lubiatowo with the sticker “Yes for nuclear in the municipality of Choczewo”.
Dozens of small reactors
Currently, over 70 percent of electricity in Poland is produced from lignite and hard coal. The share is expected to fall to eight percent by 2040. Half of electricity production should then come from renewable energies, followed by electricity from nuclear power. In addition to the Kopanino-Lubiatów nuclear power plant, a second one is planned near Konin, almost 300 kilometers from Frankfurt/Oder – on the site of a lignite-fired power plant that is currently still in operation. The two nuclear power plants are scheduled to go online in 2033 and 2038 and together will produce up to nine gigawatts in the long term.
In addition, Poland plans to build 79 small reactors, so-called SMRs, each with an output of 300 megawatts. They are expected to supply a third of future nuclear power energy and locally supply entire towns or factories with electricity and heat. The first SMR is scheduled to go online in 2028.
“Should…” – Monika Morawiecka, an expert for Central and Eastern Europe at the international organization “Regulatory Assistance Project” (RAP), is skeptical. “Small reactors could be very useful, provided they are built and work. It is not so certain that they will work. They are not used anywhere yet.”
“Chernobyl was a long time ago”
According to a poll conducted by United Surveys for Radio RMF FM and the daily newspaper “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” from November 2023, 83.5 percent of Poles support the construction of nuclear power plants in the country – a 180-degree turn: 40 years ago, when only 20 kilometers When construction of the nuclear power plant in Żarnowiec began on the now planned nuclear power plant on the Baltic Sea, the disaster in Chernobyl occurred. After numerous protests across Poland, the plans were abandoned.
Poles today see Germany’s nuclear phase-out as a big mistake, says Adam Traczyk, political scientist and pollster at the Warsaw think tank Moreincommon. “The Poles see the Germans as pragmatic – and do not understand this step. Especially when they hear that after nuclear power plants were shut down, some coal-fired power plants went back online. For Poland, nuclear power is a project that gives the country more sovereignty in the area brings energy.”
Monika Morawiecka is less optimistic. “Whether you can really say that you will become independent thanks to nuclear power plants is questionable,” she says. “Technology and fuel have to be imported. But it is true that nuclear energy can ensure stable energy and is safe.” The Poles are no longer afraid of a catastrophe like Chernobyl: “Chernobyl was a long time ago. But the fear of rising energy costs and bad air is real,” says Adam Traczyk.
Protest in German federal states
The German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony protested for a long time against the Polish nuclear power plant plans. This was met with rejection in the neighboring country. What’s even more incomprehensible than Germany’s nuclear phase-out is that Germany demands that others do the same, explains Adam Traczyk.
Since the EU Parliament declared nuclear power alongside natural gas as green technologies in July 2022, Germany has no longer been able to stop Poland’s nuclear power plant plans. As part of cross-border consultations, countries are allowed to express their opinions and ask questions, but nothing more. The consultation was completed in April 2023. “I myself am against nuclear power, but I have to understand that our neighbors have a different vision,” says Hendrik Fischer, State Secretary in Brandenburg’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Energy.
When planning the nuclear power plants, the Polish government assumed that nuclear power could be exported to Germany. Kristina Haverkamp, Managing Director of the German Energy Agency dena, definitely rules this out: “Germany has not only given up on nuclear power plants, but on nuclear energy as a whole” – including imported ones. She is skeptical about Warsaw’s plans to go nuclear: “People in Poland are probably not aware of how long it will take, what problems it will entail, such as a necessary final storage facility, and that in the end it will cost much more than was included in the planning .”
Residents are promised infrastructure
The residents in the communities around the planned nuclear power plant on the Baltic Sea are divided: many who practice agritourism or own a summer home fear that the region’s attractiveness will be lost. But they are in the minority. Surveys show that more than 70 percent of the local population supports the nuclear power plant. An expressway and a rail connection are to be built, thousands of jobs and an enormous influx of money are promised. There will never be a lack of electricity.
And to tourists? The power plant itself, but also a new 300 meter long pier and a marina should continue to attract visitors. At least that’s what we want to believe here.