Anti-nuclear Movement in Poland

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Overview on Poland's Atomic Politics

Poland since the 1950s always followed a clearly pro-nuclear policy, mostly expressed in a wide range of nuclear research activities. However, until today, Poland never has made uses of atomic power for commercial energy production, nor have there ever been intentions to set up a nuclear industry, neither for for nuclear fuel production nor to obtain fissile material for military use.

Nevertheless, Poland has to deal with waste amounts of radioactive waste, originating mostly from its research reactors and to a far smaller degree from medical accessories. Those wastes consist of low and intermediate level radioactive waste being stored in an old Russian fortress, while all high level radioactive spent fuels have been and are still being transferred to Russia. The atomic capacities of Poland these days only consist of one research reactor near Warszawa with a nominal power of 30 MW. Altogether, there have been 5 reactors on Polish territory since 1958. Environmental problems connected to atomic energy occurred in Poland basically as a result of uranium mining. This took place in lower Silesia during the 1950s and '60s. There are still several 100 abandoned dumps of waste rock and an uncovered tailing pond, which was supposed to be part of a remediation project in 2004.

In 1980 Poland once already had begun constructing of two commercial atomic power plants. The catastrophe of Chernobyl and the end of the communist regime in 1989 led to the abortion of construction work, and Poland's energy supplement remained based on coal. After the millennium, new plans for the implementation of a domestic nuclear industry with a core of two commercial power plants were developed. In 2011 the Polish parliament approved a proposal to build these plants until 2023. This has been accompanied by activities in lower Silesia to explore potentials for new uranium mining. Poland also will have to build a new repository for the long-term highly radioactive waste which would be produced in the new plants.

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Anti-nuclear Groups

  1. Greenpeace Poland
  2. NIE dla ATOMU w LUBIATOWIE
  3. PIAN - Pomorska Inicjatywa AntyNuklearna
  4. Friends of the Earth Poland
    • Polski Klub Ekologiczny Zarząd Główny, ul. Romanowicza 2/410, 30-702 Kraków; phone: +48 124232047; fax: +48 124232098; biuro AT zgpke.most.org.pl[1]
  5. Inicjatywa AntyNuklearna


Groups and organizations also working on the anti-nuclear field

  1. Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Biuro Regionalne Europa Centralna


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