NUCLEAR POWER ENGINEERING - Instytut Spawalnictwa in the Polish delegation to Finland
From 14 until 16 April 2015 a Polish delegation visited Finland. The primary object of the visit was to become familiar with Finland's experience related to the construction and operation of nuclear power plants.
The Polish delegation included representatives of the Department of Nuclear Energy of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Poland, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), Polish Energy Group (PGE EJ1), building engineering cluster EUROPOLBUDATOM, TAURON (at the same time a representative of the Polish Economic Chamber), ERKO Company (at the same time a representative of the Polish Economic Chamber of Electrotechnics) and Instytut Spawalnictwa represented by Jerzy Niagaj, PhD (DSc) Eng. Associate Professor at Instytut Spawalnictwa.
On the first day of the visit, following the official reception in the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, the Polish delegation met the Director and personnel of the Department of Energy of Finland's Ministry of Employment and Economy. Issues discussed during the meeting were concerned with the role of nuclear power engineering in the Finnish power engineering policy and with the "Polish Nuclear Power Engineering Programme " (PEJ).
On the next day of the visit to Finland the delegation mentioned above was joined with a 17-strong group of Polish industry representatives, whose primary objective was to start collaboration with Finnish companies operating in the nuclear power engineering sector. It was possible due to the Polish-Finnish Nuclear Business Day staged by Ms Leena Jylhä, the Executive Director of the Finnish association FinNuclear.
An interesting item on the agenda of the visit to Helsinki was a meeting at the headquarters of FENNOVOIMA, a company which presented the plans related to the construction of the Hanhikivi new nuclear power plant based on Russian design AES-2006.
The Polish delegation also had an opportunity of visiting the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, where delegation members learnt about the basic parameters and characteristics of operation of power units Olkiluoto 1 and 2, as well as about plans and progressing construction of the POSIVA underground radioactive cemetery. In addition, the Polish group visited the construction site of power unit Olkiluoto 3.
Numerous and free discussions between the delegation members and the Finnish industry representatives resulted in conclusions that experience gained by the Finns during the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant require thorough analysis and should be taken into consideration when starting the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Poland . Due to many meetings with a number of Finnish companies it can be expected that Polish companies may be re-employed in the construction despite the change of the supplier of the nuclear technology for the new Hanhikivi nuclear power plant.
The visit of the Polish delegation was organised by the Department of Nuclear Energy of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Poland and co-funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The visit was co-organised by representatives of the Polish Embassy and of the Department for the Promotion of Trade and Investments of the Polish Embassy in Helsinki.
Jerzy Niagaj, PhD (DSc) Eng. Associate Professor at Instytut Spawalnictwa