NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV and Marzena Czarnecka, Minister of Industry of Poland
NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV, was in Poland on 13 May 2025 to meet with senior government representatives, academia and to participate in discussions on recent developments and future global priorities in the nuclear energy field.
To ensure energy security and address the environmental and economic challenges, Poland first launched its nuclear energy programme in 2014. Updated in 2020, the programme envisages the construction and commissioning of the country’s first nuclear power plant before 2040 as part of efforts to diversify the country’s energy portfolio. With an energy-intensive industrial sector, the country is also considering upgrading existing power plants to use small modular reactors (SMRs) in place of coal.
The government plans and recent progress in advancing the nuclear energy programme were discussed during meetings with Marzena Czarnecka, Minister of Industry of Poland, with Wojciech Wrochna, Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, and Secretary of State at the Ministry of Industry, and with Paweł Pytlarczyk, Vice-President of the Polish National Energy Agency (PAA). The discussions also included ongoing co-operation and Poland’s participation in NEA activities, as well as additional areas for future collaboration.
Meeting with Paweł Pytlarczyk, Vice-President of the Polish National Energy Agency (PAA)
Director-General Magwood also attended the 11th edition of Euratom Research and Training Conferences on Fission Safety of Reactor Systems (FISA) and Radioactive Waste Management (EURADWASTE) where he participated in a high-level panel, which featured a video address by Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, as well as remarks by Marzena Czarnecka, Minister of Industry of Poland, and Jacek Bylica, Chief of Cabinet for M. Grossi, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Director-General Magwood participates in the opening panel of the second day of the FISA-EURADWASTE conference.
During the event organised under the auspices of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Director-General highlighted the challenges related to building the future nuclear energy workforce.
“There are approaches and solutions, but it means that we have to start today to try to turn the situation around,” said Director-General Magwood. “We need to start in high schools because the 16-year-olds today are going to be the operators of nuclear power plants in 10 years, if we train them, encourage them and get them on the path. This will not happen unless we start right now.”
The mission to Poland also included a visit to Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) where Director-General Magwood delivered a lecture to the students and staff on the opportunities and challenges in the nuclear sector and the NEA activities in this context.
