Agreement with project company PEJ the result of ‘intensive negotiations’
Westinghouse and Bechtel will jointly form a consortium to design and build Poland’s first commercial nuclear power station in the northern province of Pomerania.
An announcement on Thursday (25 May) said the two US companies had signed an agreement in Warsaw with Poland’s nuclear project company Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe to define the terms of cooperation.
The agreement is the result of “intensive negotiations” in recent months, a statement said. The agreement will apply to commercial contracts for the construction of a nuclear power station in Pomerania.
The contract for the design of the power plant is planned to be signed later this year, the statement said.
The agreement defines responsibilities and key rules and conditions to be followed by the partners. It specifies that Westinghouse and Bechtel will work together in areas such as designing the nuclear station, implementing schedules, project control and quality control.
The leader of the consortium at the design stage of the power plant will be Westinghouse and during construction Bechtel.
PEJ said earlier this month that it considered the establishment of a consortium involving Westinghouse and Bechtel its preferred model for the Pomerania nuclear station.
In November 2022, Warsaw said it had chosen Westinghouse to supply its AP1000 reactor technology for the three-unit nuclear power station at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site near the Baltic coast in Pomerania.
Warsaw wants construction to start in 2026 with the first unit online in 2033.
Polish climate and environment minister Anna Moskwa said the agreement is another milestone and strengthens the nuclear project.
Mateusz Berger, government plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure said Bechtel and Westinghouse had completed construction of two AP1000 plants at the Vogtle nuclear station in the US state of Georgia.
“This experience gives us the conviction that the nuclear power station in Pomerania will be built according to the schedule and will meet the highest safety and energy efficiency parameters, and that this project will become a driving force for the development of technology and knowledge transfer,” he said.
