WASHINGTON – Poland’s quest for nuclear energy is running into major opposition from its German neighbor, which is abandoning this form of energy after 50 years following the Japanese nuclear disaster last year, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
States in Germany bordering Poland are raising major objections, even though Poland lacks other alternative energy sources to meet its growing demand for energy.
“Coal is running out, the wind isn’t very strong in Poland and the sun rarely shines,” Krzysztof Krzemiski, mayor of the city of Reda in northwest Poland, told Der Spiegel. “We need nuclear energy.”
Poland receives 90 percent of its energy from coal. Despite German opposition, Poland will build two new nuclear reactors.
“If someone doesn’t want to build nuclear power plants, that’s their problem,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Poles feel they have little choice but to proceed with nuclear energy and to pursue drilling potentially large shale oil reserves recently discovered by geologists. To obtain the natural gas from the rock deep beneath the surface of Pomerania and Kashubia in northwest Poland, geologists will have to use the “fracking” method of extraction by injecting chemicals into layers of rock.
Concern among environmentalists, particularly in Germany, is the potential for contamination from the chemicals to ground water.
The Poles admit that they don’t know what they can do about nuclear waste which remains radioactive for thousands of years. However, they are prepared to overlook the objections not only from the Germans but also the Russians, who similarly object to the gas shale extraction effort.
As it stands now, Poland buys two-thirds of its natural gas from Russia, which charges higher prices to Poland than it does to its business partners in Europe.
Yet, Germany and Russia regard Poland as “backward” and bypassed Poland altogether a number of years ago when they built a natural gas pipeline between Germany and Russia and ran it beneath the Baltic Sea.
Both Germany and Russia, however, continue to look upon Poland as secondary to their own needs, an attitude which has been reflected much throughout history.
However, Poland for once finds itself in a position to snub its historical rivals and intends to dismiss their criticism and proceed with the construction of nuclear reactors and develop their gas shale reserves.