Poland currently operates a single research reactor, Maria. It has no operational nuclear reactors for power production, but is to start construction of a plant with three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors in 2026 that was originally planned to be completed in 2033-2036 but is currently expected to only be finished by 2040. It also intends to build small modular reactors. Poland operates a nuclear waste disposal site in Różan, named Krajowe Składowisko Odpadów Promieniotwórczych (National Nuclear Waste Disposal Site) since 1961, where waste from the current and past reactors is stored, without any incidents throughout its operational history.
Background
Around 52% of Poland's electricity in 2025 was produced by burning hard coal and lignite (of which Poland has the EU's largest reserves). This took place at industrial facilities and large central generating stations such as the 5 GW Bełchatów Power Station. With the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions for environmental, climate, and economic reasons, the country continues to explore deployment of nuclear reactors for electricity generation and industrial process heat.
National nuclear regulator Nuclear activities in Poland are regulated by the national nuclear regulator Państwowa Agencja Atomistyki (PAA). The PAA is a modern nuclear regulator which is an active member of European and international nuclear regulatory organizations.
International relations Poland is a signatory to all major international treaties regarding nuclear energy, a member state of the European Atomic Energy Community, and one of the founding member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957.
History
1980 through 2000 In the 1980s, the Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant was under construction, but the project was abandoned for a mix of reasons, including questions about the profitability of the enterprise, financing issues, and opposition from environmental activists. In 1990, the Polish government formally ended the project and began to liquidate the construction site.
2000 through 2020 A 2006 feasibility study suggested it would be optimal to build an 11.5 GWe capacity nuclear power plant. However, this proving unaffordable in the immediate future, Poland decided to build a 4.5 GWe nuclear power plant by 2030. In 2007, a draft energy policy proposed a 10 GWe nuclear capacity by 2030 to provide 10% of electricity. The deadline gives an estimated ten years for investment and construction and five years of public campaigning. In July 2006, Poland joined Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania to replace the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant being shut down due to pressure from the EU. Poland would invest 22% with these other countries into the project, the Visaginas NPP main site would have been under principal construction by early 2016 with necessary prerequisite planning, financing, regulatory agency approval and logistical ground work in terms of infrastructure modernization and expansion finished and in place by 2015. The plant commercial operations scheduled to begin by 31 December 2022. The total costs of the project was to be EUR 6 billion. Poland was guaranteed to have 1,200 MWe from the power plant and has upgraded transmission capacity between Lithuania and Poland. After the nuclear project was abandoned, Lithuania instead became an importer of electricity from Poland. In a public opinion poll, 60% of the population supported construction of a nuclear power plant in Poland to reduce its dependence on foreign sources of energy. Additionally, 48% supported construction of a nuclear power plant in their neighborhood, citing local benefits that include lower energy costs. The popular Baltic Sea resort Mielno was one of three sites selected, however in February 2012, residents voted overwhelmingly against the plan. Some 94 percent of the 2,389 people who took part in a referendum opposed the plant and only 5 percent supported it. In 2014, under the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Poland's Nuclear Power Program was adopted. Through the early 2020s the Polish Nuclear Power Program was managed by the group EJ1 of the state-owned utility PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna.
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