NCBJ has been autho­ri­zed by the Natio­nal Ato­mic Energy Agency (PAA), which will allow the insti­tute to sup­port the acti­vi­ties of the Agency’s Pre­si­dent in the field of safety of nuc­lear power plants and nuc­lear phy­sics in prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions. At the cur­rent stage, these tasks will be pri­ma­rily rela­ted to the pro­ces­ses of licen­sing future power plants and super­vi­sion over their con­struc­tion.

Sta­te­ment on the PAA website:

The Pre­si­dent of the Natio­nal Ato­mic Energy Agency, Andrzej Gło­wacki, pre­sen­ted the autho­ri­za­tion deci­sion to the direc­tor of the Natio­nal Cen­ter for Nuc­lear Rese­arch, prof. Krzysz­tof Kurek. The deci­sion was han­ded over on June 30 at the PAA headqu­ar­ters.

This docu­ment con­firms the high quality of work pro­vi­ded by the autho­ri­zed insti­tu­tion for nuc­lear safety. This is the first step in NCBJ’s appli­ca­tion for the role of tech­ni­cal sup­port orga­ni­za­tion for PAA in the pro­cess of licen­sing and super­vi­sion over the con­struc­tion of nuc­lear power plants.

The scope of autho­ri­za­tion for NCBJ inc­lu­des: asses­sment of radio­lo­gi­cal effects resul­ting from safety ana­ly­zes for various con­di­tions of nuc­lear power plants, pro­ba­bi­li­stic safety ana­ly­zes of nuc­lear power plants at levels 1 and 2, issues of nuc­lear phy­sics in prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions in nuc­lear power plants.

Autho­ri­za­tion of labo­ra­to­ries and expert orga­ni­za­tions

In the scope of acti­vi­ties rela­ted to the super­vi­sion and con­trol of nuc­lear power plants, the PAA Pre­si­dent may only use the assi­stance of autho­ri­zed labo­ra­to­ries and expert orga­ni­za­tions.

Addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion:

The Depart­ment of Nuc­lear Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Ana­ly­sis will play the main role in the imple­men­ta­tion of tasks rela­ted to expert sup­port for the acti­vi­ties of the PAA Pre­si­dent.

The Tech­ni­cal Sup­port Orga­ni­za­tion (TS), refer­red to in the PAA sta­te­ment, is a labo­ra­tory or other insti­tu­tion ope­ra­ting in coun­tries with nuc­lear energy, whose main goal is to pro­vide tech­ni­cal sup­port for the nuc­lear sec­tor, inc­lu­ding nuc­lear power plants and other nuc­lear instal­la­tions, and for super­vi­sion insti­tu­tions. Requ­ire­ments for TSOs may vary by coun­try and by appli­ca­ble regu­la­tions. In Poland, the target model is still being sha­ped.

The most com­mon requ­ire­ments for TSOs inc­lude:

Inde­pen­dence: The TSO sho­uld be inde­pen­dent of nuc­lear ope­ra­tors and govern­ment bodies to pro­vide objec­tive and inde­pen­dent asses­sments and tech­ni­cal advice.

Tech­ni­cal exper­tise: The TSO sho­uld have highly quali­fied tech­ni­cal staff with know­ledge and expe­rience in nuc­lear tech­no­logy, nuc­lear safety, nuc­lear engi­ne­ering and rela­ted fields. TSO employ­ees sho­uld have appro­priate quali­fi­ca­tions and expe­rience to effec­ti­vely per­form their tasks.

Access to infor­ma­tion: TSOs must have access to rele­vant data, docu­ments and infor­ma­tion rela­ted to nuc­lear instal­la­tions. This requ­ires the full coope­ra­tion of nuc­lear ope­ra­tors, who sho­uld make the neces­sary infor­ma­tion ava­ila­ble to TSOs for asses­sments, inspec­tions and audits.

Com­pliance with regu­la­tions and stan­dards: TSO must ope­rate in accor­dance with appli­ca­ble nuc­lear safety regu­la­tions and stan­dards in the coun­try. It must also adhere to inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards, such as those set by the Inter­na­tio­nal Ato­mic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Inter­na­tio­nal Com­mis­sion for Nuc­lear Regu­la­tion (ICR).

Tra­ining and pro­fes­sio­nal deve­lop­ment: TSO sho­uld pro­vide appro­priate tra­ining and pro­fes­sio­nal deve­lop­ment for its staff in order to main­tain high tech­ni­cal stan­dards. Staff sho­uld rece­ive regu­lar tra­ining on the latest tech­no­lo­gies, safety pro­ce­du­res and deve­lop­ments in the field of nuc­lear energy.