WARSAW (Reuters) – Bechtel, the largest U.S. engineering company, on Thursday joined the Polish government’s project to build the country’s first nuclear power plant.
Bechtel is teaming up with Westinghouse Electric Co, which Poland chose last year as the supplier of technology for the plant, set to be built on the Baltic Sea coast by 2033.
Warsaw plans to build 6-9 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity in two locations to reduce the country’s carbon emissions and phase out coal.
Anna Moskwa, Poland’s climate minister, said she hoped the location for the second project would be chosen this year, adding that the early choice of the contractor would help avoid delays that often plague nuclear projects.
“Westinghouse and Bechtel are a known tandem. We believe this decision will allow us to stick to our timetable and start generating electricity in 2033,” she said.
“Where we sit today, with all the efforts people have put in this project it’s still a realistic timeline,” Patrick Fragman, Westinghouse president and chief executive, told a news conference after the agreement was signed in Warsaw.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Mark Porter)
