PEJ teams up with university for nuclear skills development

Monday, 7 August 2023

The agreement between PEJ and WUT provides for expert and research cooperation. It also includes arrangements for cooperation in the development and implementation of scholarship programmes, co-organisation of contests for scientific papers or project contests. Under the agreement, the company-investor and the university undertake to work together on a curriculum to enable WUT graduates to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to find employment in the nuclear sector.

Employees of PEJ will prepare and conduct selected classes for students as part of the university's undergraduate and graduate programmes. In addition, PEJ committed to organise paid internships for the best graduates of selected university courses related to nuclear energy.

"The dynamic development of the nuclear sector and acquisition of new competencies by Polish companies in connection with acceleration of the Polish nuclear power programme will require adequately trained personnel," said Łukasz Młynarkiewicz, acting President of Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe. "I believe that cooperation with one of the best technical universities in Poland will help to achieve this goal."

"The Warsaw University of Technology has been training personnel for the nuclear sector for many years, and we also have many outstanding experts in the field," noted WUT Rector Krzysztof Zaremba. "The execution of the nuclear power plant project and the associated development of the entire industry considerably increases the demand for both well-trained engineering personnel and experts in the field.

"I am confident that the cooperation between the Warsaw University of Technology and Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe will provide top-class specialists in Poland, who will not only be able to build safe and advanced nuclear power plants, but will supervise the operation of the power plant or maintain the reactors and the entire infrastructure in full operation."

According to the Ministry of Climate and Environment, there are already about 80 companies based in Poland that provide services to nuclear technology vendors around the world. Another 300 entities are ready to join the Polish nuclear supply chain as part of the execution of the Polish nuclear power programme.

"It is important for us to train Polish personnel who will actively participate in the construction and operation of nuclear power plants in our country, and therefore Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe is signing today a cooperation agreement with a key technical university in Poland - Warsaw University of Technology," said Anna Łukaszewska-Trzeciakowska, Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure.

Poland currently has large-scale plans to develop nuclear energy capacity. In September 2021, it was announced that six large pressurised water reactors with a combined installed capacity of 6-9 GWe could be built by 2040 as part of the country's plan to reduce its reliance on coal. According to the adopted schedule, the construction of the first nuclear power plant will start in 2026, with the first reactor - with a capacity of 1.0-1.6 GWe - being commissioned in 2033. Subsequent units will be implemented every 2-3 years. The coastal towns of Lubiatowo and Kopalino in Poland's Choczewo municipality in the province of Pomerania were named as the preferred location for the country's first large nuclear power plant.

In November 2022, the Polish government announced the first plant, with a capacity of 3750 MWe, will be built in Pomerania using AP1000 technology from the US company Westinghouse. An agreement setting a plan for the delivery of the plant was signed in May by Westinghouse, Bechtel and PEJ.

ZE PAK, Polska Grupa Energetyczna and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power have signed a letter of intent to cooperate on a nuclear power plant project in Patnow, in central Poland, assessing the viability of building South Korean APR1400 reactors on the site.

Applications have also been submitted for small modular reactors (SMRs) in Poland. In April, copper and silver producer KGHM Polska Miedź SA submitted an application for a decision-in-principle on the construction of a NuScale VOYGR SMR power plant in Poland. Later that month, Orlen Synthos Green Energy applied for a decision-in-principle on the construction of power plants based on GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 at six locations.