2036 at Earliest: Poland's First Nuclear Reactor Confirmed Three Years Late
October 8, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Poland's Tusk government confirmed on October 2 that its first nuclear reactor will not come online before 2036, three years behind the previous schedule, with the second plant's first unit pushed to 2040.
Poland's first nuclear reactor will not generate commercial power before 2036, a three-year delay against the 2033 target set by the previous government. The second plant's first unit slips to 2040, one year late. The Tusk administration confirmed both dates on October 2, pushing the centrepiece of Poland's energy-independence strategy three years past the 2033 target the previous government had set.
The stakes are concrete. Coal still generates just over half of Poland's electricity, the highest share in the European Union, according to brusselssignal.eu. Grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) projects demand will rise by 40 per cent over the next 14 years, a figure brusselssignal.eu calls likely conservative given the pace at which AI infrastructure and data centres are arriving. Electricity prices are already the second most expensive in the EU relative to the cost of living.
Energy minister Miłosz Motyka presented the updated Polish Nuclear Power Programme on October 2 as a national-security commitment. "We are building a nuclear sector that will drive the Polish economy and serve our security for decades to come," he said. Officials project nuclear power will cover between 15 and 16 per cent of Poland's electricity by 2040, according to polishnews.co.uk. Whether the construction schedule can hold that projection is a different question.
State-owned Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe filed its construction permit application with the National Atomic Energy Agency on March 31, 2026, a dossier exceeding 40,000 pages, according to brusselssignal.eu. The regulator has up to 24 months to rule. First nuclear concrete is not scheduled until the final quarter of 2028. Commercial operation of the first of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Lubiatowo-Kopalino on the Baltic coast follows in 2036, with the remaining two units expected in 2037 and 2038. Nuclear energy expert Maciej Lipka, of Warsaw-based consultancy Nuclear PL, told NucNet the original 2033 date was "quite unrealistic from the outset and wishful in nature," arguing that prior planning had not accounted for the real scope of permitting and approvals. Neutronbytes.com assessed a more realistic finish for the second and third units as 2039 and 2042, not the official 2037 and 2038.
Part of the delay is self-inflicted. When Tusk's coalition took office, it ordered an audit of the nuclear programme approved by the outgoing Law and Justice (PiS) government in 2020, then reopened the construction arrangements PiS had struck with US consortium Westinghouse and Bechtel. The European Commission cleared €14.2 billion (60.2 billion zloty) in Polish state aid for the first plant on December 9, 2025, per brusselssignal.eu, with disbursements running from 2025 to 2030. The total construction cost for the three-reactor, 3.75 GW first site was estimated at USD 20 billion.
The second plant's location has not been settled. Bełchatów and Konin, both built around large coal-fired stations in central Poland, are the leading candidates, according to brusselssignal.eu. Warsaw will choose a technology partner in 2027, with French firms the frontrunners given Tusk's stated preference for EU partners following a defence treaty signed with France in May 2025. The opposition Law and Justice party accuses the Tusk government of stalling on nuclear for budget reasons and out of hostility to projects it criticised when in opposition, brusselssignal.eu reports.
Coal's share of Polish generation has fallen from around 90 per cent a decade ago to just over 50 per cent today, while renewables have climbed from 9 per cent to 29 per cent, according to brusselssignal.eu. Poland's national energy and climate plan targets coal below 5 per cent by 2040, with nuclear at 15 to 16 per cent.
Poland needed its first reactor in 2033. It will get it in 2036, at best.
Published October 8, 2026 · Frisian News