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Poland named its first nuclear energy commissioner

21.05.2009

 

Introducing a nuclear energy law and selecting an investor who will carry out the construction of the first Polish nuclear plant - these are the tasks of Hanna Trojanowska, new commissioner for nuclear energy appointed the Deputy Minister of the Economy.
 
Danuta Isler reports
 
Hanna Trojanowska graduated from the University of Technology in Prague and completed post-graduate studies in management at the Warsaw School of Economics. She also had a scholarship with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the department of nuclear security. Until her appointment she ran the  nuclear energy department of the Polish Energy Group (PGE), a  state-owned electricity company. "My new position is really focusing on the developement of the nuclear power program for Poland and gaining social acceptance for it" says Poland's new commissioner for nuclear energy.
 
Among the biggest challanges the commisioner will face is undoubtedly the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant. The document to be presented to the Council of MInisters is to include information about the number, size and possible locations of the nuclear complex. Back in January PM Donald Tusk announced Poland would build "one or two"  nuclear energy plants by 2020 - the task the new minister considers "very ambitious."
 
This is not the first time the nuclear power plant project surfaces in Poland. The first nuclear power plant was to be built in the northern locality of Zarnowiec. The project was approved in 1972 and construction began 10 years later but due to protests in the late 1980s and early '90s, the nearly finished site was abandoned. Another factor which for years has contributed to the widespread skepticism was the blast  in the Belorussian locality of Chernobyl 1986. It could be expected then that the ambitous plan of minister Trojanowska will not meet with the approval of many, including ecological organisations lwhich claim according to the EU climate package Poland should achieve 15% of final energy consumption from reneawable energy sources.


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