Agneta Rising, director general of the World Nuclear Association (WNA) says that it is urgent for Poland to act now and become the next country to use nuclear generation to meet their clean energy needs sustainably.

Rising was speaking at the World Nuclear Spotlight Poland conference in Warsaw, which brought together stakeholders from the Polish nuclear power programme, the Polish Ministry of Energy, as well as WNA and FORATOM, the voices of the nuclear industry.

Investing in low-carbon nuclear will enable Poland to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and other air pollutants (e.g. NOx and SO2), whilst ensuring people and industry have access to the electricity they need, when they need it, and at an acceptable cost to consumers, a high-level meeting concluded, 21 November.

Having nuclear as part of the energy mix helps to stabilise electricity prices as its fuel source, uranium, is abundantly available and its price has little impact on production costs, WNA added in a statement.

Poland is planning to develop nuclear energy because it is low-cost, low-carbon and creates high-value jobs, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, the Polish Minister of Energy told the conference, 20 November.

The minister said that Poland must introduce a new low carbon energy source that would allow it to reduce the average CO2 emissions produced in the course of electricity generation. In 2017, Poland emitted 308.6 million metric tons of CO2, which was an increase on the previous year.

Poland is already showing its commitment to cutting CO2 emissions, having recently joined the Nuclear Innovation Initiative under the Clean Energy Ministerial (NICE Future), and by hosting the next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 24) in December 2018 in Katowice, WNA said.

With COP24 right around the corner, a decision to invest in nuclear will show that Poland is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, the WNA said in a statement.

At European level, the European Commission is expected to set a strong decarbonisation target of up to 95% by 2050 in its strategy for long-term EU greenhouse gas emission reductions to be issued on 28 November 2018.


Photo: The high-level panel concluded that nuclear could help Poland reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants