"We're preparing to start work in 2016 so that the plant can come online at the start of the third decade of the century," the government's nuclear power chief Hanna Trojanowska told reporters.

"The deadlines are tight but remain realistic," she added, pointing to the government's 2020 target.

Poland also has plans for a second plant by 2025, according to a government nuclear strategy launched last year.

Poland, which currently relies on coal-fired plants for 94 percent of its electricity, has also committed itself to easing its dependence on the fossil fuel as part of the EU's climate package limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

The government has said it wants nuclear power to generate 9.3 percent of the country's electricity by 2030, while coal's share should drop to 60 percent.

Trojanowska said that experts favoured Zarnowiec, near the northern port city of Gdansk, as the site for the first plant.

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