Bechtel-Westinghouse Group, PEJ Agree on Terms for Poland’s First Nuclear Power Plant

Industry Discussions Nuclear Power
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Poland’s state-owned nuclear power company and a consortium led by Bechtel and Westinghouse have agreed on the main commercial terms of a deal to build that country’s first nuclear power plant.

The groups on September 23 said the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract, which still must be signed, stipulates that the power station will use three Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III+ pressurized water reactors, with a total 3,750 MW of generation capacity. Both Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), a special purpose vehicle 100% owned by Poland’s state treasury, and the Bechtel-Westinghouse consortium said they are committed to finishing negotiations for the EPC deal by year-end. The companies noted that the agreement “brings together American reactor technology and an American engineering and construction team, working with Polish industry on one of Europe’s most important energy infrastructure projects.”

Westinghouse was first announced in 2022 as the reactor supplier for the Poland power station. Poland wants to build more carbon-free power generation capacity (including small modular reactors) to help reduce its reliance on coal-fired power.

“This agreement reflects the momentum we’ve built with PEJ, and it’s a vote of confidence in American nuclear technology and know-how,” said Dena Volovar, president of Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security & Environmental business. “Bechtel has designed, built, or supported 150 nuclear power plants over 80 years, and we recently completed the most modern AP1000 units in the United States [at the Plant Vogtle site in Georgia]. Using modern execution tools to drive efficient delivery, we’re bringing that experience to Poland, and we’re building local capability as we go. By the time this plant is running, Polish companies and Polish workers will be part of a nuclear industry that can compete for decades.”

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Meanwhile, Bechtel will no longer be involved with the TerraPower Natrium project in Wyoming. This could be a big problem down the road.

“Construction in Kemmerer will maintain its current schedule with the exemplary subcontractor teams and EPC [engineering, procurement, and construction] support services from commercial-grade firms that have been working on-site,” TerraPower said.

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They need to have an engineering team that knows how to read and interpret 10CFR Part 50. They can’t do that with “subcontractor teams” and commercial grade firms. In simple terms, they need somebody who understands how things are done in the nuclear industry. This is part of the reason why the Vogtle 3&4 projects ran into delays and extra costs.

_ Pete

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With Bechtel as the EPCcontractor, I was hoping that this project might prove that nuclear can be economically competive. Without an A+ EPC contractor that will never happen. I think TerraPower wanted Bechtel to provide a lump sum price, and Bechtel refused.