Poland and the Czech Republic agreed to cooperate more closely on the civilian use of nuclear energy at a meeting between Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala in Prague on Wednesday.
Tusk said that Poland is starting “from zero” in this field, while the Czech Republic already has many years of experience.
“We are convinced that nuclear energy is the way forward,” said Fiala.
Poland plans to invest heavily in nuclear power in the coming decades.
It awarded the contract for its first reactor unit to the US nuclear plant manufacturer Westinghouse in 2022. The plant is scheduled to start operating in 2033, with another five units to follow.
The Czech Republic currently operates a total of six nuclear reactors at the Temelin and Dukovany sites in the south of the country.
The leaders also discussed the future of the Schengen area, with both expressing concern about free movement after Germany introduced border checks in September in an attempt to reduce the number of unauthorized entries into the country.
Fiala said that the border checks went against the idea of the European Union and European integration, and that illegal migration had to be solved in other ways, for example at the EU’s external borders.
