A consortium comprising US companies Bechtel and Westinghouse Electric Co. inked an engineering development agreement along with a state-owned Polish company, thereby committing to collaborate when it comes to the design as well as the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Poland. This will indeed be the first step to bring nuclear energy in Poland.
As per the release from the Department of Energy, this initiative originally began at the time of the first Trump administration and could, at the end, accommodate a total of six Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants throughout the two sites. Chris Wright, energy secretary of the US, oversaw the signing of the agreement. At the Three Seas Business Forum in Poland, which was held the same day, Wright criticized the climate policies of Europe as well as the US and said that the two biggest climate solutions in the forthcoming decades are going to be the same as they were in the last two decades – natural gas and nuclear—just because of the simple reason that they work.
At the world economy summit, Wright said that the present Trump administration is working on the objective for a nuclear Renaissance. It is well to be noted that Wright served as the chairman and CEO of an oil and gas services company called Liberty Energy and also was a board member of a company called Oklo, which is into small modular nuclear reactors. This was prior to his appointment as the energy secretary.
It is worth noting that Wright’s nomination drew a lot of controversy because of a video that he had posted on LinkedIn in 2023, which begins with him saying that there is no climate crisis and that we are not in the middle of any kind of energy transition either. However, during his confirmation hearing in the Senate, he did say that climate change is for real, and it is a global phenomenon.
In February 2025, Wright went on to say that the Department of Energy under his leadership is going to focus on expanding the baseload generation as well as supporting the development When it comes to next-generation nuclear technologies, in addition to fossil fuels, hydropower, and geothermal.
In his keynote speech, Wright remarked that climate alarmism has clearly reduced the freedom of energy, prosperity along with the national security across Western Europe.
As a matter of fact, he went on to compare the Soviet Union’s former control on Central Europe to the climate policies of that of the US as well as Western Europe, which happen to focus on limiting the carbon emissions and, at the same time, increasing the development when it comes to renewable energy resources.
Wright further said that the climate policy goes on to deprive the consumers, the citizens, of the choice they want to make. It is basically a top-down position when it comes to mandates for the energy system.
As far as bringing nuclear energy in Poland was concerned, the secretary opined that this partnership, when it comes to energy, if it is chosen wisely, is going to be very long-lasting and that the US nuclear relationship, along with Poland, is going to tightly bind both nations through to the next century.
This recent agreement happens to be a follow-up on the initial contract that took place and is part of a larger nuclear energy security deal, which is worth tens of billions of dollars in order to build large-scale civil nuclear reactors across Poland. The deal was made between Polskie Electrownie Jadeowe, which is a special purpose vehicle company and entirely owned by the state treasury of Poland, and the Westinghouse and Bechtel consortium.
It is worth noting that Poland went on to select Westinghouse as its supplier for the project in November 2022, and the government of Poland went on to announce the funding for the project in September 2024. Interestingly, the Polish government has promised a contribution worth 60 billion zloty to the project as per Westinghouse, and the total cost when it comes to the project is going to be 192 billion zloty, which amounts to US$51 billion. This engineering development agreement is indeed a very pivotal step for the project and, as a matter of fact, paves the way for the upcoming steps that include site work, design, regulatory, and also procurement activities.
The actual construction of the project is anticipated to begin in 2026. The Westinghouse AP-1000 is already operational in the US and in Poland, it will be constructed by Bechtel as one of the key partners in the proposed US delivery team.
