Dr. Józef Sobolewski, Ministry of Energy Nuclear Power De­par­t­ment Director with some accompanying persons visited NCBJ. The guests were presented with ra­dio­iso­to­pe production capacity of the MA­RIA re­ac­to­r and Świerk capacity to support the Polish Nuclear Power Programme. Dr. Sobolewski is a former employee of our Institute.

A record-high level of 4,800 hours of operation has been scheduled for MARIA for 2016. Grze­gorz Krzysz­to­szek, Director of NCBJ De­par­t­ment of Nuclear Facilities Operations said that such intense operations were not feasible if technical conditions of the reactor were not good. The period the reactor will be safe to operate is at least another several years. Dr. Krzysztoszek expressed also his hope that physicists would be more attracted to run pure research experiments at horizontal channels of the reactor since research infrastructure around the channels was modernised earlier this year.

The guests met also with Dr. Krzysz­to­f Kure­k, NCBJ Director General, who presented a broad range of possibilities regarding involvement of our Institute in the programme to develop the first nuclear power plant in Poland.

Nuclear Power De­par­t­ment headed by Dr. So­bo­lew­ski is responsible for implementation of the Polish Nuclear Power Programme. Currently the Department is within structures of Ministry of Energy organized last December. The Ministry responsibilities include supervision over all power/fuel companies fully owned by the State. In line with its competences, the Ministry of Energy is going on April 1, 2016 to take over supervision over Pol­ska Gru­pa Ener­ge­tycz­na, Tau­ro­n, Enea, and Ener­ga Polish power companies from the Treasury.