The President of the National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) issued a general opinion on safety analyses for the nuclear power plant in Pomerania. This is the first opinion of this kind in Poland in the area of nuclear safety. The scope of the planned independent verification of safety analyses, as presented in the application submitted by Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), was found to be correct. This is another step toward obtaining all the administrative approvals required by law for the country’s first large-scale nuclear power plant.
An application to obtain a general opinion from the PAA President on independent verification of safety analyses was submitted by Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe to the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency on 26 September 2022. It is one of the elements of the process of obtaining a license for the construction of a nuclear facility. Pursuant to Article 36d of the Atomic Law Act, the investor is required to provide independent verification of the analysis prior to initiating the construction of a nuclear power plant.
– Obtaining The construction of a nuclear power plant is one of the most complicated, complex infrastructure investment projects in the world. It is a process spread over years, requiring many steps – giant leaps and small efforts, which together will add up to success. The first successfully verified application of such type confirms at the same time that we will adhere to the most demanding standards in these most important issues, including, above all, safety, said Anna Łukaszewska-Trzeciakowska, Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure.
Based on PEJ’s application, the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency evaluated the proposed description (scope and level of detail) of the verification, taking into account both domestic and international nuclear safety requirements. In the opinion issued, the PAA President assessed that the description of the independent verification of safety analyses correctly identified the main components of the safety analyses of a nuclear facility.
– In the nuclear industry, safety is a top priority, and the investment project we are executing is no different. From the very beginning, we have been very conscientious about safety issues. The determination by the National Atomic Energy Agency that the scope and the detail level of the planned independent verification of safety analyses are correct confirms the high quality of the work we have done, and allows us to move on to the next tasks, so that the nuclear power plant in Pomerania be a fully safe facility, said Łukasz Młynarkiewicz, acting President of the Management Board of Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe.
The purpose of verifying safety systems analysis is to ensure the highest possible standards for safe operation of a nuclear power plant. The analyses presented in PEJ’s application encompassed both deterministic analyses, i.e., the manner in which a nuclear reactor will behave in various, even the most improbable, situations, and the so-called probabilistic analyses, which allow to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a given system or installation, along with an assessment of the probability of various events and their consequences. The presented scope of the planned verification of safety analyses was assessed as correct.
Pursuant to the government document in force titled “Polish Nuclear Power Programme”, Poland will build and operate generation III+ nuclear power reactors that as of now guarantee the highest safety levels. The first NPP, with a capacity of 3,750 MWe, will be built in Pomerania using AP1000 technology from the US company Westinghouse.
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Safety analyses are part of the process of safety assessment of a nuclear facility, performed systematically at the design/engineering stage, and then during the operation of the nuclear facility. Their goal is to ensure that all nuclear safety requirements are met from the beginning to the end of a nuclear facility’s operational lifecycle. In practice, safety analyses boil down to the creation of computational models mapping the operation of a nuclear facility under all possible conditions, including accident conditions. In addition, many calculations are carried out using verified and validated analytical tools. The analysis of the results obtained is then juxtaposed with nuclear safety requirements.
