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Financing model to follow by the end of August Warsaw wants to build up to six reactor units at two sites, but a technology supplier is yet to be selected. US-based Westinghouse Electric Company is preparing to submit a front-end engineering and design offer for Poland’s first nuclear power new-build programme by the ned of June this year, according to Mirosław Kowalik, chief executive of the company’s Warsaw branch.

“Our proposal in terms of technical and design conditions for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Poland will be presented by the end of June, and by the end of August we will present the investment financing component,” Mr Kowalik told online newspaper Business Insider Polska.

He said that the company has the support of the US government, but gave no further details.

Westinghouse is one of three bidders who want to take part in the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power station. France’s EDF and South Korea’s KHNP have already submitted non-binding offers to the Polish government, which expects to make a final decision on the project by the end of 2022.

Poland wants to build from 6,000 to 9,000 MW of installed nuclear capacity based on large-scale, pressurised water nuclear reactors of Generation III and III+ designs, with a first reactor coming online in 2033. At the end of 2021, the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the northern province of Pomerania near the Baltic coast was selected as the preferred location for Poland’s first commercial nuclear power station

According to Mr Kowalik, the goal of launching Poland’s first reactor in 2033 is “ambitious, but realistic”.

In July 2021, Westinghouse and Bechtel agreed to provide Poland’s state-owned Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ) with a front-end engineering and design study for the deployment of two nuclear power stations, each consisting of three AP-1000 PWRs. The two companies are jointly preparing a preliminary engineering design for the Polish government to consider building the first three reactors near the Baltic Sea coast.

Westinghouse has also said it wants to involve Polish companies in the construction of the nuclear power plants, with local share in the supply chain expected to be about 50%.

In April 2022, Bechtel signed agreements with 12 Polish companies for the potential development of two new nuclear power stations. The companies provide services ranging from earthwork and infrastructure construction to concrete, tunnelling, electrical installations and heavy cranes.

Bilateral cooperation on the proposed nuclear project is being carried out on the basis of a government agreement signed between Poland and the US in 2019.

Date: Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Original article: nucnet.org/news/westinghouse-expects-to-submit-offer-for-first-nuclear-project-in-june-6-1-2022