South Korean firm withdraws from nuclear plant project in Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a state-run South Korean energy company, is withdrawing from a nuclear power project in Poland, the Yonhap news agency has reported.

KHNP President Whang Joo-ho told South Korean lawmakers this week that the decision was driven by changes in Warsaw’s energy policy under its new government, a claim that Poland’s energy ministry dismissed as untrue.

The move follows a settlement earlier this year between KHNP, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and US-based Westinghouse – which will build Poland’s first nuclear power plant – over an intellectual property dispute.

“After the new Polish administration took office…the country decided to drop the state-owned enterprise projects (in the nuclear power sector)…and that is why we withdrew our business there,” Whang said, quoted by Yonhap.

KHNP had planned, together with Polish state energy giant PGE and private firm ZE PAK, to build two nuclear reactors in Konin-Pątnów, central Poland. The facility was to have a capacity of 2.8 GW.

Poland’s energy minister, Miłosz Motyka, dismissed claims that the Polish government had abandoned the project as untrue. “The government has not made any decisions to ‘suspend’ the project, as all decisions are made by the investor, which is half privately owned,” he said on X.

“Last month, the ministry issued an official invitation to the Korean side to participate in a competitive bidding process for the second power plant, and we are awaiting an official statement on this matter,” Motyka added.

According to Pulse, an English-language news website run by Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper, KHNP handed over leadership of its European nuclear projects to Westinghouse following an intellectual property dispute with the American company.

While details of the settlement have not been disclosed, KHNP has also withdrawn from nuclear tenders in Sweden, Slovenia and the Netherlands since signing the agreement with Westinghouse in January 2025.

It reportedly bars KHNP from bidding for nuclear projects in most EU countries, North America, the UK, Japan and Ukraine, restricting it to remaining markets in Asia, the Middle East, South America and Turkey.

Pulse reports that industry experts consider the terms disadvantageous, though Whang defended the deal during an audit in the National Assembly, South Korea’s parliament.

The withdrawal of the Korean company prompted criticism from Poland’s former ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), which blamed the Donald Tusk-led ruling coalition rather than KHNP.

“This is what Tusk’s ‘energy policy’ looks like: capitulation to the expectations of Germany, which does not want nuclear energy in Poland,” said PiS MP Jacek Sasin, who served as state assets minister under the previous government and was among the officials to sign the deal with KHNP, PGE and ZE PAK.

Another PiS MP and former deputy foreign minister, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, described the move as an example of the “crumbling of the state”.

Poland’s first planned nuclear plant in Choczewo is being developed with a consortium of the US companies Westinghouse and Bechtel. The plant has a planned electricity generation capacity of up to 3.75 GW.

A second nuclear plant is also planned, with two potential sites, Konin and Bełchatów – the latter home to Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant and the EU’s largest carbon emitter.

In March, the industry ministry reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the second project, stating that its plans are expected to be finalised by 2027.

The plant is scheduled to become operational in 2040. The total combined capacity of the two plants will be between 6 and 9 GW.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Lukáš Lehotský/Unsplash

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.