Upon the request of Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) issued an opinion on the classification of the Circulating Water System at an AP1000 nuclear power plant as non-safety related. This document is crucial for ensuring nuclear safety and further timely delivery of the schedule of the NPP project at Lubiatowo-Kopalino.
‘As a responsible investor, we are working closely with PAA and will continue to do so throughout this project. Ensuring the highest level of safety for the first nuclear power plant is of utmost importance. Opinions of the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency help us adjust technical and business solutions to ensure the highest possible standards of operation of Poland’s first nuclear power plant,’ stressed Piotr Piela, acting CEO of PEJ.
In the opinion issued on the basis of PEJ’s request dated 30 September 2024, the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency assessed that the Circulating Water System was correctly classified by PEJ as non-safety related. This is because of passive safety systems used at the power plant, based on AP1000 reactor technology from the U.S. company Westinghouse. Reactors of this type can, if necessary, be cooled for 72 hours without electricity and without human intervention. Such safeguards give them an advantage over most other types of reactors currently operating in the world.
PAA’s third opinion for the power plant in Pomerania
This is the third opinion issued by the PAA President for PEJ. The first opinion concerned the scope and level of detail of independent verification of safety analyses for the nuclear power plant in the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site, and the Company obtained it in June 2023. In the opinion issued then, the PAA President stated that the description of the independent verification of safety analyses correctly identified the main components of independent verification of deterministic and probabilistic safety analyses of a nuclear facility. The second general opinion was issued for PEJ in late August 2024 and concerned the safety classification methodology for the systems, structures and components used in the AP1000 reactor design.
The PAA President’s general opinion is a tool for dialogue between the nuclear regulator and the applicant-investor, whose task is to ensure nuclear safety of the proposed project. In the process of obtaining a construction license for a nuclear facility, it is not obligatory to obtain a general opinion from the President of PAA, and the scope of this opinion depends on the applicant. According to Article 39b of the Atomic Law Act, the subject of the PAA President’s general opinion may be organizational and technical solutions planned to be applied in the future operations as well as draft documents to be submitted with the application for a license. This includes carrying out relevant safety analyses and developing the classification of systems, structures and components of a nuclear power plant, as required to apply for a license to build a nuclear facility.
