Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant

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Model of Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant

Unfinished remains of main building of Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant

The Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant (Polish: Elektrownia Jądrowa Żarnowiec) was supposed to be the first nuclear power plant in Poland.^[1] Due to protests in the late 1980s and early '90s, the nearly finished project was abandoned.

The project was discussed and approved in 1972 by the government of the People's Republic of Poland. The construction began in 1982 on a site located in the north of the country near the Baltic Sea, about 50 km northwest of Gdańsk, just to the south of its namesake village Żarnowiec, adjacent to Lake Żarnowiec which was to be used by the plant for cooling. Its design incorporated 4 WWER-440 pressurized water reactors with combined output of about 1,600 MW.

From the early 1980s, and especially in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the plant's construction was controversial and attracted a significant and growing number of protesters; among them, members of the Solidarity trade union and of smaller organizations such as Ruch Wolność i Pokój or Franciszkański Ruch Ekologiczny, despite the fact that it was a safe, PWR type, not the Chernobyl-like RBMK. The change in economic situation after the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989, combined with those significant environmental protests displaying the lack of public support for the plant's construction and the democratic nature of the new government, which wanted to gain the support of the population, contributed to the new government's (that of Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Lech Wałęsa) decision to suspend construction in 1989 pending a review, and then abandon the project in 1990.^[2] Tadeusz Syryjczyk, a contemporary Polish minister of economics, stated that the power plant would be unnecessary, unprofitable and possibly unsafe.^[3]

A major factor contributing to this result was the outcome of a special local referendum on the issue held in Gdańsk Voivodeship on May 27, 1990, in which 86% of votes were cast against the plant's construction^[1] (even though the turnout was 44.3%, too low to make the result legally binding).

The local government that took over the buildings was unable to prevent them from falling into disrepair. One of the reactors was sold to Loviisa power plant in Finland, another to the Hungarian Center for Nuclear Studies in Paks. Most of the other equipment has been looted or destroyed due to lack of maintenance. Supporters of the project estimate the costs of construction and losses from abandoning the project total about 2 billion dollars.^[4]

At present, the future of nuclear energy in Poland is still an open issue. With growing demand for electricity, the traditional power plants burning coal are generating more and more environmental problems (especially by emitting huge amounts of SO2, NO etc.). Bearing this in mind, the Polish government adopted in December, 2004 long term plans which ultimately should result in the construction of a nuclear power plant around 2020. Whether it will be at Żarnowiec or elsewhere is still to be decided.