Sticking with US Tech to Benefit Polish Nuclear Power, Envoy Says

Poland should stick with US companies as the government plans a second location for its nascent civil nuclear energy program, the outgoing envoy to Warsaw said. 

The East European nation picked Westinghouse Electric Co. reactors for its first atomic energy plant, a part of the plan to cut the country’s reliance on coal. The government is due to start talks about constructing a second nuclear facility early next year, with French companies eager to play a role.

“There are efficiencies and economies of scale if you keep with the same technology and the same builder in the second one as the first one,” US Ambassador Mark Brzezinski told Bloomberg News in an interview on Monday.

“We are underway, and it seems not efficient to remake the wheel to say the least,” Brzezinski, whose term in Warsaw ends on Jan. 20, said. 

The deal with Westinghouse and Bechtel Group Inc. — seen worth more than $30 billion — was heavily lobbied by Washington and is set to strengthen relations between the NATO allies, according to the envoy. The US has started a nuclear engineering program in Warsaw and is active in laying the “initial groundwork” for the plant, he said.

The deal has already attracted some scrutiny. The European Commission last week started a probe into Poland’s plan to use state aid to support the investment, which is set to be completed by 2036. 

The project — based on the latest US technology — is set to be the first of its kind in the European Union, eating into the dominance of French companies, which now operate more than half of the bloc’s nuclear units.

The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has kept its options open for an investor in the second plant since his ruling coalition came to power late last year. His administration has sought a rapprochement with EU allies following eight years of fractious nationalist rule.

Brzezinski, who has made support for democratic values a rallying cry of his three-year stint in Warsaw, said the politics shouldn’t trump what makes bigger economic sense for Poland’s energy future. 

Over the next years, Warsaw is likely to face a rising bill for its dependence on coal in power generation, which may also erode its edge in attracting foreign investors.

“If the Polish people are asked to pay more or to somehow have a more complex situation in terms of civil nuclear power in order for to have, you know, short term political gains — that doesn’t seem to me like the right way to roll,” the ambassador said.