“Science must follow business, it must support business, entrepreneurship, the economy. Zero-emission energy, nuclear energy is the energy of the near future”, said Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek after a meeting at which he signed a letter of intent to educate personnel for nuclear energy together with the President of the Management Board of PKN Orlen Daniel Obajtek and six rectors of technical universities. 

Minister Czarnek stressed that in-depth scientific research related to nuclear energy is needed in Poland. He announced the creation of a separate programme for the development of nuclear energy, and research on it, so that “Poland would have not only engineers, but also world-leading scientists dealing with nuclear energy”. 

The head of the Ministry of Education and Science added that this would be achieved through grants provided under the Copernican Academy. “The aim of all this is to make modernity in Poland a reality now and within the next few years, and not in the long term”, he announced.

The main objective of the signed letter is to develop an educational programme in the field of nuclear power engineering (NPP) and to organise and launch BA and MA studies of an all-academic profile in this field from the academic year 2023/2024. 

“The agreement, a letter of intent, concerns the creation or reactivation, as the case may be, of a course in nuclear power engineering where nuclear engineers will be educated”, stated Minister Czarnek.

The signatories on the document were Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek, President of the Management Board of PKN Orlen Daniel Obajtek and the rectors of the Poznan University of Technology, the Silesian University of Technology, the Gdansk University of Technology, the Stanisław Staszic Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow, the Warsaw University of Technology and the Wroclaw University of Technology. 

Adrian Andrzejewski