National Atomic Energy Agency

The Polish nuclear regulatory authority, or the National Atomic Energy Agency, is supposed to oversee each stage of a nuclear power plant’s operation, from the construction planning works, through the construction itself, the actual operation of the nuclear power plant until its decommissioning. For the PAA, the most important value is nuclear safety. As an independent regulatory authority, the Agency does not promote nuclear power or the use of ionizing radiation, but pays close attention to all elements that constitute nuclear safety and proper radiation protection.

The priority of safety is a basic principle applied by designers of a nuclear power plant. That means that safety issues are the most important – they override all other aspects of the plant's operation. Another very important principle used in a modern reactor design is the principle of so-called defence-in-depth. This means that designers should anticipate a variety of emergency scenarios and include multiple safeguards that will operate independently of each other. Safety features are in place in case of a technical failure, a human error, adverse effects of natural forces, or external actions, for example, power plants are designed to withstand the fall of a passenger plane. The design of a nuclear power plant must meet all standards of national law but also foreign standards. In the process of issuing a decision on construction licence, the National Atomic Energy Agency will carefully check whether the investor's application contains all the necessary provisions related to nuclear safety.

The video, shown below, is an animated compendium of basic knowledge about the safeguards used in nuclear power plant designs - we encourage you to watch the material.  

We would also like to remind you of our previous educational videos, in which ionizing radiation plays a central role. What is ionizing radiation? Who discovered this phenomenon? What are the sources of ionizing radiation? We invite you to watch the animated video below.

A unit commonly used in radiation protection is the sievert. What exactly does this unit indicate? What are the types of ionizing radiation and is it dangerous? In the animated video presented below we answer all these questions - we encourage you to watch the material.

We will soon publish a video on our website and social media showing the nuclear power plant licensing process, or the process of assessing and analyzing applications for the licence of the PAA for the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant.