Poland revises 'unrealistic' nuclear launch date

Poland revises 'unrealistic' nuclear launch date

02 September 2010

Poland's plan to ready itself for the deployment of nuclear power plants have been put back by two years, with 2022 now the likely date for the start-up of its first reactor.

The new date comes from the government's recently drafted strategy of nuclear power development. The first plant is expected to become operational in 2022, and the second one possibly by 2030, commissioner for nuclear energy Hanna Trojanowska said at a recent press conference.

"The original plans to launch the first plant by 2020 were unrealistic, but the revised deadline of 2022 is much more likely to be met," says Andrzej Strupaczewski of the Institute of Atomic Energy PolAtom, a state-run research centre. "However, time is pressing, and the construction should begin in 2016 at latest."

Next in the government's agenda is the creation of a new atomic energy agency that would take over most tasks from the Ministry of Energy, presently charged with the nuclear portfolio. The new agency could be established in 2012.