Westinghouse President and CEO Patrick Fragman visited Poland last week and the site of the country’s first nuclear power plant to see the progress of preliminary work along the Baltic Sea. He also met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, U.S. Ambassador Mark Brzezinski and many other leaders on the heels of the government’s new commitment of 60 billion zloty ($15.6 billion USD) to the project.
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His trip to the city of Warsaw and the Pomerania region included a meeting with the board of Polish utility Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), which will be the owner and operator of the power plant featuring three advanced AP1000® reactors. Patrick and Craig Albert, COO of our construction partner for the project Bechtel Corp., congratulated PEJ leaders for the newest influx of funding for the power plant.
“Westinghouse and Bechtel have a combined 150 years of experience in nuclear, dating back to the first reactors in the United States. This is unparalleled in the global nuclear industry,” Patrick said during a reception hosted by Ambassador Brzezinski at his residence in Warsaw on the first night of the trip. “This project will not only help Poland meet ambitious clean energy goals. It will also help secure – and cement – your energy security future. This is an exciting time for Poland and Westinghouse is proud to be a part of it.”
Here’s a look back at the three-day trip:
Emphasizing a Local Workforce and Supply Chain
The first day kicked off with the PEJ Board meeting, which included PEJ CEO Leszek Juchniewicz.
Patrick and other leaders from Westinghouse and Bechtel then met with Industry Minister Marzena Czarnecka and Maciej Bando, Undersecretary of State and Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure. Patrick emphasized Westinghouse’s priority to develop a local workforce and supply chain, including cooperation with Polish institutes and universities.
That afternoon, the delegation visited the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, where they met with Ambassador Brzezinski and Jill Hruby, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security at the U.S. Department of Energy, who also serves as the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). During the meeting, Patrick expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Brzezinski for his strong support in advancing the project.
The first day of the visit concluded with the reception at the U.S. Embassy.
Meeting with President Duda and Polish Media about Project Progress
During the second day of his Poland visit, Patrick talked with Polish journalists about progress so far in preliminary work on the project. He shared that Westinghouse and Bechtel are finishing the initial phase of the Engineering Services Contract signed last year and highlighted that the Westinghouse Krakow Office has expanded to over 300 employees in the past year.
Patrick and the Westinghouse/Bechtel delegation then visited the Presidential Palace to meet Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland. Patrick thanked President Duda for his leadership in advancing the nuclear power plant and the U.S-Poland governmental agreement supporting it.
Visiting the Site of Poland’s Future Nuclear Power Plant
During a site visit in Gdansk, Westinghouse and Bechtel talked with local leaders about the geological surveys that are underway at the construction site. The surveys mark an important milestone as they provide critical data on the geological and hydrogeological conditions at the plant’s location. They also discussed with local government officials a collaboration with the Gdansk University of Technology to prepare students as the future nuclear engineers of the region.
“This will further build Poland’s economy through opportunities to export AP1000 parts to other nuclear projects in Europe,” Patrick said of the Westinghouse/Bechtel efforts to localize the project.
In looking back at his trip, he added: “Westinghouse is proud to be contributing its advanced AP1000 technology to the transformational journey Poland is on.”
The advanced AP1000 reactor is the only Generation III+ reactor in operation with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design and the smallest footprint per MWe. There are six AP1000 reactors operating across the world: two AP1000 units at the Vogtle site in Georgia, along with four AP1000 units currently setting performance and availability records in China with eight additional reactors under construction and four more under contract. The AP1000 technology has also been selected for nuclear energy programs in Ukraine and Bulgaria and is under consideration for sites in Central and Eastern Europe, the UK, India and North America. There will 18 units based on AP1000 technology in operation globally by the end of the decade.
