Westinghouse urges fast Polish nuke plant decision-INTERVIEW
Trade the News
Friday September 10, 2010 04:40:10 AM GMT
* Says no reason to wait 3 years to pick supplier
* 2022 deadline in danger if choice made in late 2013
By Kuba Jaworowski
KRYNICA, Poland, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Polish government will miss a 2022 deadline to start the country's first nuclear block unless it speeds a decision on choosing technology for the reactor, an official at Westinghouse Electric said on Thursday.
Micheal Kirst, the company's vice president for strategy and external affairs in the EMEA region, told Reuters Poland could have a tough time opening the plant in 2022 if it waits until late 2013 to pick the technology.
Westinghouse, a U.S.-based unit of Japan's Toshiba, is competing with Areva, EDF and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to provide technology for the project, which is being led by Poland's top utility PGE.
"We are urging PGE and the government to make an early technical decision. We think the technologies are clear in their differences, so there is no need for three years of evaluation," Kirst said on the sidelines of an economic summit in Krynica.
Poland, which plans to build two nuclear plants with a total installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts, in August pushed back its planned date for the first bloc to 2022 from 2020.
The government wants to build nuclear plants to help the European Union's largest ex-communist economy lessen its dependence on highly polluting coal and ease the future impact of EU environmental protection policies.
It picked state-controlled PGE to lead the project in cooperation with a yet-to-be-named financial partner. PGE plans to pick both the technology and the financial partner by the end of 2013.
Westinghouse is confident it has a good chance to be the first supplier, Kirst added. "We actually think the chances are very good." (Writing by Patryk Wasilewski, Editing by Michael Kahn and Jane Baird)
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