GB No. 8, summer 1992

ŻARNOWIEC STRIKES BACK

Goniec Pomorski (the issue of 2 June) reports that a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Industry has revealed that talks are in progress with the international concern ASEA BROWN BOVERI with a view to the construction of a nuclear power plant in Poland. The plant would be built during the next six or seven years and as it would be supplying energy mostly for Germany, it would be located somewhere in north-western Poland. The precise location of the site is kept secret so as to avoid protests from ecologists and the local population, but the most likely region is the area at the border between the districts of Szczecin, Koszalin, Piła and Gorzów. It is sparsely populated and removed from any big cities, which should minimize, on the one hand, the risk, and on the other, opposition to the project. It is planned that the power station would have a capacity of 2,000 MW, and - in view of the destination of most of the electricity - it would be integrated with the Western European energy system. The technology would be supplied by ABB, but the machinery would come from the ZAMECH works of Elbląg and the DOLMEL works of Wrocław. New opportunities for picketing seem to be in the offing.

Tomasz Perkowski

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Ministry of Industry and Commerce Energy and Fuels Department
Wspólna 4
00-926 Warsaw

Warsaw, 5 Aug., 1992

Our refs. EP/Jk/E-1/3676/92

The Editorial Staff of Zielone Brygady

With reference to your inquiry of 24 July, 1992, please be informed that:

  1. No preparations are currently being made by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the north-east or in any other part of Poland. To our knowledge, no such investment is being planned for the coming years.
  2. After the construction of the "Żarnowiec" nuclear power plant was aborted, no negotiations have been carried on - either by the former Ministry of Industry, or by the present Ministry of Industry and Commerce - with any Western partners whatsoever concerning the possibility of the construction of a nuclear power plant in our country. We do not expect, either, to become engaged in any such negotiations in the nearest future.
  3. The resolution of 9 November, 1990, on the strategic goals of the energy industry in Poland until 2010, was taken by the Lower House of Parliament of the Republic of Poland after its members had become acquainted with the government document "Strategic Goals of Power Industry in Poland for the years 1990-2010". The said document presents the energy balance of Poland and a cost analysis, and postulates a limited development of nuclear power plants only after the year 2000 (a maximum of 2,000 MW by 2005 and 6,000 MW by 2010). The resolution of Parliament of 9 November, 1990, does not call this assumption into question and accepts "the possibility of construction of nuclear power plants based exclusively on new-generation reactors that ensure economic effectiveness and ecological safety".
  4. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce is not preparing any new legislation concerning nuclear power plants.

Work-Group Co-ordinator
Chief Specialist
Przemysław Zawadzki, Engineer

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We have received a similar answer from Dr Stanisław Latek, National Agency for Nuclear Energy. The only new piece of information is that "a study is under way (in co-operation with the National Institute of Geology) aimed at finding a suitable location for a deep underground nuclear waste dump for materials with low, medium, and high levels of radioactivity."

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As we read in "Gazeta Wyborcza" (9 June, 1992), "the development programme for the energy industry proposed by the Ministry of Industry calls for the construction of a 6,000 MW nuclear power plant by the year 2010." Apparently, some high-powered counterproposal will have to be worked out. (For the sake of comparison, Poland's biggest power plant "Bełchatów" has a capacity of 4,320 MW; the aggregate power installed in Polish power plants totals 32,000 MW; the current demand for electricity is 18,000 MW.)

Piotr Rymarowicz
ZB 8-9/92
transl. by Sigullum Ltd.

GB No. 8, summer 1992 | Contents