The poll, commissioned by business daily Gazeta Prawna and national radio station RMF FM, found that 44% of participants are strongly for the proposed construction, while 39% are “rather” in support of the idea. Opponents of the project amounted to 9.5% of the surveyed.
RMF FM said that about 68% of respondents want Poland to develop nuclear as a source of energy, while about 83% said solar and wind energy is the way forward. The development of gas and coal-fired generation gathered 26% and 24% of opinions.
A similar poll for the Rzeczpospolita newspaper showed 86% saw the construction of new nuclear power in the country as “a good idea”. Similarly, about 9% of the respondents were of the opposite opinion.
Both polls were carries out between 4 and 6 November, days after Warsaw announced its official decision of selecting US-based Westinghouse Electric to build the country’s first three-unit nuclear power station in the northern province of Pomerania at an estimated cost of about €20bn ($20.7bn).
A poll in December 2021 suggested that 74% of Poles approved the construction of a nuclear power station. Another poll in August found 60% of Poles were in favour of speeding up work on the nuclear programme, with only 13% opposing it.
Poland wants to build from 6,000 to 9,000 MW of installed nuclear capacity using large-scale, pressurised water nuclear reactors. Commercial operation of a first nuclear reactor unit in a set of three to be built by Westinghouse is planned for 2033.
Plans for a second nuclear station under the programme have not been detailed yet.
However, South Korea’s state-run nuclear plant operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has begun investigating the site of coal plant in southern Poland for the construction of APR1400 nuclear power plants.
