Poland has opened its first Clean Energy Training Center, a joint project of the Polish Ministry of Climate and the Environment and the U.S. Department of Energy, with technical support from the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Located in Warsaw, the CETC is geared as Central Europe’s hub for workforce training needed to expand nuclear capacity in the region, according to ORNL, which sent four of its researchers to Poland in April to support the center’s opening. The Polish facility’s launching also received help from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Nuclear Security Administration, ORNL said in a statement.
The CETC’s opening was built upon months of virtual discussions among ORNL professionals and their Polish counterparts and other stakeholders on advanced nuclear energy adoption challenges, such as fuel cycle and waste management. In-person collaboration followed with the ORNL delegation’s April visit.
Andrew Worrall, ORNL’s director of nuclear programs, described the CETC as a stimulating project for sharing his more than 30 years of training and experience. “To be able to share those insights and experience with a new nuclear country and to be a part of this DOE-led center underlines the role of a national lab such as ORNL and the benefit of the collaboration the U.S. has with Poland,” he said.
The ORNL is among the eight DOE Energy Earthshot Research Centers with a combined $195 million, four-year funding awarded in September 2023 for 11 projects to advance clean energy technologies.