Warsaw - A growing number of Poles now support building a civil nuclear reactor in their country, according to an opinion poll in the daily Rzeczpospolita on Monday.

Some 42 per cent are opposed to the project, compared to 56 per cent last year against nuclear energy, said the survey of 1,000 people.

The gradual shift in opinion comes as Poland realizes how dependent its is on Russia for energy - and susceptible to another crisis, sociologist Barbara Fedzyszak-Radziejowska said.

A dispute over prices between Ukraine and Russia sparked a three-week blockade from Moscow that sharply reduced Russian natural gas sent to Europe at the start of the year.

Poles are also more supportive of a plant because they assume it will be more like the plants already operating in the European Union, Fedzyszak-Radziejowska added. Previously Poles were afraid the plants would be more similar to the old Soviet or Russian reactors, such as the one in Chernobyl, which self-destructed in 1986 with lethal consequences.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in December that coal-reliant Poland could get a nuclear power plant by 2020 in an effort to move towards "cheap and clean" energy. (dpa)