POLAND, USA NUCLEAR

WNN - Poland and the USA have signed a Joint Declaration of Energy Security, which emphasises the expansion of their cooperation in a variety of areas, including civil nuclear energy. The document was signed in Warsaw yesterday by Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchórzewski and US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

Part of the Poland-US Strategic Dialogue on Energy and a follow-up to a declaration on strategic partnership signed by the Polish and US presidents in Washington on 18 September, the Joint Declaration lists eight aims concerning civil nuclear energy.

• to facilitate cooperation between the countries' respective nuclear industries on the construction of nuclear power plants, the provision of related supporting infrastructures and services, the development of supply chains, and the provision of maintenance of supplies and services for their existing nuclear fleets;
• to foster the importance of scientific and regulatory cooperation and collaboration to make nuclear solutions to future energy supply challenges safe, effective, economical, and friendly for the environment;
• to encourage cooperation of nuclear industry entities from both countries to seek opportunities in nuclear new build and the provision of related supporting infrastructures and services, and the provision of maintenance of supplies and services for the countries of the region;
• to promote best practices in procurement for the construction of nuclear power plants, and the provision of related parts and services for either new or existing nuclear power plants;
• to explore the application of terms for financing nuclear power plants or programmes;
• to promote international arrangements that would help future civil reactors, including advanced reactors, deployed in Poland obtain access to reliable nuclear fuel supply and services, notwithstanding the role and prerogatives of the Euratom Supply Agency;
• to encourage the development of civil nuclear energy infrastructure, including training and human resource development, as well as appropriate application of civil nuclear energy and related energy technology, in accordance with evolving International Atomic Energy Agency guidance and standards on infrastructure development and Euratom regulations;
• to establish a working group to implement the above provisions on cooperation in civil nuclear energy, under the strategic dialogue between the two countries on energy.

The US Department of Energy said Poland is a key member of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC), which Secretary Perry launched at the Three Seas Summit in Bucharest, Romania in September. Following that Summit, President Andrzej Duda and President Donald Trump announced the intention to establish a US-Poland Strategic Dialogue, in which energy is an important pillar, it added.

Perry visited Warsaw in the first stop on his four-country trip to Central and Eastern Europe.

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Earlier:

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