The only Polish reactor is down, and the clock is ticking. Today is an important deadline

• The current director of the National Centre for Nuclear Research, Krzysztof Kurek, was dismissed from his position on April 3, 2025.
• The Maria Center and reactor play an important role in nuclear medicine, producing about 30 percent of the world's iodine-131 supply.
• The longer the reactor shutdown lasts, the greater the risk of permanent loss of market. Since mid-April, radioactive material for the production of radiopharmaceuticals has been purchased abroad.

The National Centre for Nuclear Research is one of the most important research centres in Poland, it owns the only nuclear reactor in Poland - Maria.

The Maria reactor is currently not operating because the permit issued by the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency expired at the end of March. A new document has not been issued yet.

Additionally, we have been in a transition period in the management of the National Centre for Nuclear Research for over a month.

Let us recall that on April 3, 2025, Prof. Dr. Hab. Eng. Krzysztof Kurek was dismissed from the position of director of the facility.

Minister of Industry Marzena Czarnecka justified her decision with the need to improve the functioning of the facility , and in particular to prioritize the operation of the Maria nuclear reactor.

Shortly after, a competition for the position of director of the Center was announced. It states that interested parties can submit applications until May 16, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

Interviews with candidates qualified to participate in the further procedure will be conducted from May 22 to June 6, 2025. After this date, we should meet the new director of NCBJ.

The subject of the interviews will be knowledge of the scope of activities of the National Centre for Nuclear Research and the candidate's qualifications and professional experience in the field of management skills appropriate for the position of director of a research institute. The candidate's concept of the development of the National Centre for Nuclear Research will also be discussed.

Let us recall that on March 31, 2025 - after 10 years - the previous permit of the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) to operate the Maria reactor expired .

The new license has not yet been obtained, although the relevant application was submitted on August 20, 2024. At that time, NCBJ submitted an application with 53 attachments - a total of about 1.5 thousand pages of documentation . Since then, the documentation has been supplemented several times. During the proceedings, in response to PAA's requests, NCBJ received nearly 1 thousand questions regarding the submitted documentation. In response, about 50 additional attachments were provided.

The nuclear regulator has six months to review the documents, but if it requests additional letters or analyses, this deadline may be extended. This is what happened, and as a result the reactor had to be shut down on April 1. A new license will probably be granted under the new director, and can be expected in a few weeks.

Triangle talks between PPA, NCBJ and the Ministry of Industry

This coincided with a planned break in the reactor's operation. As Krzysztof Kurek explained earlier, the research reactor operates in cycles and always has several technical breaks a year . During these breaks, operational activities and modernization of the reactor systems are carried out.

The last major modernisation phase took place in 2023 , when Maria was shut down for seven months – 70 electronics cabinets were replaced.

At the beginning of May 2025, the Ministry of Industry assured that the NCBJ team was conducting intensive substantive consultations with PAA experts in order to introduce the expected modifications to the submitted documentation and complete the procedure as soon as possible. It was also emphasized that in some thematic areas, NCBJ's explanations had already been accepted by PAA.

An important link in global nuclear medicine

The Maria reactor is used, among others, for irradiation of target materials for the production of radioisotopes used in medicine and materials and technology research.

It is also used in neutron doping of semiconductor materials, neutron modification of materials, and physical and neutron imaging research.

The facility is also used to use neutron beams for medical purposes and for training in reactor physics and technology.

The center and the Maria reactor produce 30 percent of the world's supply of iodine-131 . Uranium targets are also irradiated there, from which molybdenum is recovered, an intermediate in the production of 90 percent of all types of radiopharmaceuticals.

The Ministry of Industry assured that the current reactor downtime does not pose a threat to the security of radiopharmaceutical supplies to domestic nuclear medicine facilities, because from mid-April 2025, radioactive material purchased from foreign suppliers has been used for their production.

The ministry added that deliveries to domestic recipients are treated as a priority, but "some adjustments to shipping schedules" are possible.

In the case of export production , changes in deliveries are individually consulted with individual recipients.