Maria will have a “additional” break

At the end of April this year. The State Atomic Estate Agency (PAA) said that it would issue a reactor exploitation permit when the National Nuclear Research Center (NCBJ) submits the relevant documents.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Industry responsible for supervision over the nuclear sector issued a message on the status of the Maria reactor. It reminded him that the ending from April 1 this year. Technical breaks in the operation of the reactor, whose date was associated with the process of renewing the permit, was scheduled for May 8 this year. The current permit expired on March 31, 2025.

Read also: The only such reactor in Poland. Stopped working >>>

“Currently, the procedure for obtaining permission to operate the reactor on the basis of the provisions of the Atomic Law and executive regulations, taking into account the recommendations contained in the guides of the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding the safety of nuclear reactors”, is still pending.

“In connection with the above, from May 9, 2025, the Maria reactor will start a period of additional interruption in operation, which will last until the permission of the President of PAA,” said the ministry.

He assured that the NCBJ team conducts intensive substantive consultations with PAA experts in order to introduce the expected modifications of the submitted documentation and completing the procedure as soon as possible. He also emphasized that in some of the thematic areas of the NCBJ explanations have already been accepted by PAA.

“What is particularly important, the mentioned break is currently not a threat to the safety of radiopharmacytics for the National Nuclear Medicine Depots, because from mid -April this year, a radioactive material bought from external suppliers has been used to produce,” assured MP.

She added that deliveries for domestic recipients are treated priority, but “some corrections in shipping schedules” are possible. In turn, in the case of export production, changes in deliveries are individually consulted with individual recipients.

NCBJ as an entity operating the reactor, Maria, applied for a new permit to operate the reactor in August 2024, submitting an application with 53 attachments – a total of approx. 1.5 thousand. pages of documentation. Since then, the documentation has been supplemented several times.

NCBJ indicates that in the course of the proceedings, in response to PAA's calls, they received nearly a thousand questions about the submitted documentation. About 50 additional attachments were delivered in response. The last series of NCBJ questions covered over a hundred issues, and according to NCBJ, answers require additional analyzes and are passed immediately, in accordance with the deadlines.

“The final date of response to the currently the last series of queries, designated by the supervision, falls on May 15, 2025” – informed at the end of April this year. National Center for Nuclear Research.

At the beginning of April, the head of the Nuclear Energy Department of the Ministry of the Industry Paweł Gajda assured that intensive work was underway to supplement the documentation needed to issue a permit to operate the reactor Maria. He reminded that the reactor license must be renewed every 10 years.

At the beginning of April, industry minister Marzena Czarnecka dismissed the director of the National Nuclear Research Center prof. Krzysztof Kurek. The decision was justified by the need to improve the functioning of the NCBJ, and especially the priority treatment of the operation of the Maria reactor.

“The production of the reactor Maria satisfies the main part of the global demand for iodine-131 used in the treatment of thyroid gland. The reactor has also implemented technology for irradiation of uranium discs for the production of molybdenum used to obtain Technetu-99m-the most important nuclid currently for nuclear medicine”-informs NCBJ on the website.