Poland's first nuclear power plant is due to come online in 2020. Will it include French technology? Shutterstock

As pressure mounts for Poland to cut its CO2 emissions over the coming decades, the government has set in motion plans to build two nuclear energy plants with a capacity of 3,000 MW each. Much of the technology for the plant will have to come from outside Poland, and French firm EDF stands a strong chance of providing some of it.

Polska Grupa Energetyczna, Poland’s largest energy group, is overseeing the project, and the government’s plan gives them until 2013 to choose a technology for the reactor. Construction on the first reactor is scheduled to start in 2016 and it is due to come online by 2020.

PGE has already signed memoranda of cooperation with three energy companies: GE Hitachi (in March), Westinghouse (in April) and EDF (in November 2009). Reports from the three working groups are expected to be ready in July.

The agreement with EDF stipulates cooperation on nuclear energy, feasibility studies for building the first nuclear plant by 2020 and feasibility studies on the French-German European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology.

EPR technology was developed by EDF, France’s Areva and Germany’s Siemens. It is derived from the reactor models presently used by EDF, which is constructing or preparing to construct EPR reactors in France, the UK, China, the US and Italy.

“EPR is an evolutionary reactor, based on tested and very good solutions of French and German reactors,” said Andrzej Strupczewski, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission at the Institute of Atomic Energy.

According to EDF Polska CEO Philippe Castanet, if Poland fulfills its plan to generate 6,000 MW of nuclear energy, it could cut its CO2 emissions by 10 percent (40 million metric tons) per year, which would save the country E1.2 billion in CO2 quotas it would otherwise have to buy.

Marcin Cieplinski, president of PGE Energia Jądrowa, PGE’s nuclear arm, has stated that the company would reveal its preliminary preferences about the technology and partners by the end of this year.