The annual general conference of the IAEA, held last week, was an opportunity to present at the inte rnational forum the conceptual design of the HTGR-POLA reactor developed at NCBJ. As part of the week-long meeting of official representatives of the countries members of this organization, a number of accompanying meetings organized by the member states took place.

One of the accompanying events was a meeting organized by Japan entitled "HTGR Contribution towards Carbon neutrality". The Japanese side invited representatives of Poland (NCBJ) and Great Britain (National Nuclear Laboratory – NNL) to participate in this meeting. Both NCBJ and NNL cooperate with JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency) developing their own versions of HTGR block reactors, the only functioning research prototype of which (HTTR – High Temperature engineering Test Reactor) belongs to JAEA.

All three countries presented the current status of ongoing activities and their further vision for their continuation. After a long break, Japan has resumed work on the construction of a commercial reactor aimed at hydrogen production, hence the meeting was attended by a representative of the Japanese steel industry, for which emission-free hydrogen is the only option to replace energy sources based on fossil fuels. The representative of NNL presented the British government's arguments and plans for the selection and support of one of the advanced modular reactor (AMR) technologies – HTGR. For now, the UK is at the beginning of this journey.

Dr. Józef Sobolewski, representing NCBJ, the Plenipotentiary of the Director for HTR Development, presented the stages of activities in Poland since 2016, also in the context of activity related to this technology within the EU. The main element of the presentation in the panel discussion was the presentation of the conceptual design of the HTGR-POLA reactor. At the current stage of preparations for the construction of the new HTGR unit reactor, Poland is the most advanced among these three countries, which resulted in great interest and discussions with the audience of this meeting. NCBJ is currently in the final phase of designing this reactor and preparing the Initial Safety Report scheduled for 2024, which puts our Institute in a high position of advancement in HTGR technology (with the so-called prismatic core) in the world.

NCBJ employees will soon be able to learn about the status and development plans of this technology. On October 10-20, at the main entrance to NCBJ, the team of prof. Mariusz Dąbrowski will present an exhibition of models of POLA reactor elements along with an appropriate multimedia presentation.

NCBJ's work on the high-temperature reactor is financed as part of the project of the Minister of Education and Science called "Technical description of the high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR)" in the years 2021 - 2024, amount of financing: PLN 60,000,000.00 gross, contract no. 1/HTGR/2021/14.