In one of Europe’s most coal-reliant countries, where desperate homeowners lined up in wait for days to buy coal ahead of the winter as far back as August, today Poland signed an agreement with South Korea to develop the European nation’s second nuclear power plant, accelerating its efforts to become energy independent, although it has decades to go.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., a state-run nuclear plant operator, signed a letter of intent with Polish utilities PGE SA and ZE PAK SA on Monday, South Korea’s energy ministry said in a statement. The consortium will build four 1,400-megawatt APR-1400 reactors near ZE PAK’s coal plants in Patnow in Central Poland, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.
“The initiative of ZE PAK and PGE is extremely interesting because it fulfills the strategic goals of Poland and Poles — cheap energy and energy independence,” Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin was quoted as saying in the statement
The companies, with government backing, intend to prepare a preliminary development plan for the plant by the end of this year, they said in a statement.
As Reuters notes, the agreement comes just days after Poland selected Westinghouse Electric to build its first nuclear plant. The European Union’s most coal-reliant country is pushing into nuclear power to provide stable electricity while curbing the need for imports of coal and natural gas. The deal is also a shot in the arm for Korea’s government, which has been promoting the export of atomic technology as part of a wider push to reduce emissions.
There can be no successful long term energy solution without nuclear power.
I work for a Korean company.
The South Koreans will have that plant built, to specification, under budget, and ahead of schedule.
The American dumbocrats and morons union grunts could learn some lessons.