Poland close to choosing foreign partner for NPP

Poland is close to choosing a foreign partner to build the country's first nuclear power plant NPP, a deputy prime minister said after talks in Washington.

Jacek Sasin, who is also Poland's minister for state assets, met with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday.

After the talks, he told reporters: We are very close to choosing a foreign partner for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Poland as part of a government programme. He said that there was a good chance that Westinghouse, the American supplier of nuclear products and technologies, would provide the technology for the first three nuclear reactors in Poland.

Sasin said that we're closer to making a decision rather than closer to it.

He said that Sunday's talks were held as a matter of urgency because we don't have time anymore. Sasin said that the energy crisis that is affecting us, powerful, and probably the greatest, means that we must quickly make decisions on building our energy security based on completely new energy sources.

The Polish government will choose a contractor for the country's first NPP by the end of the year, according to the climate and environment minister Anna Moskwa, who took part in the talks in Washington.

Poland plans to build six nuclear power units under the Polish government's energy strategy. The first reactor should start working in 2033, producing 1 -- 1.6 GW of power. The reactors would be built every two to three years.

Poland has already signed an inter-governmental agreement with the US under which Westinghouse offered to build six large-scale reactors based on American technology in mid-September, in addition to a proposal for cooperation on civil nuclear energy.