On September 26, 2023, NCBJ was visited by Mr. David Austin Wright, Commissioner of the NRC - the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The guest was accompanied by representatives of the Commission and the US Embassy in Warsaw, including the deputy head of mission, Mr. Daniel J. Lawton. The guests met with the Institute's management, learned information about our main research priorities and visited the MARIA reactor.

The conceptual design of the Polish high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR-POLA), presented in June in Warsaw, was presented last week (September 27) at the international nuclear forum, at the annual general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

On September 23, during the conference in Warsaw entitled "Directly (wprost) about science. From basic research to development work. The Polish system of higher education and science in the era of modern challenges. Prospects, opportunities, challenges", prof. Wacław Gudowski from the National Center for Nuclear Research received the Eagle "Wprost" award in the "Business and science" category. The award was granted for outstanding scientific achievements and teaching activities in the field of nuclear energy, as well as for involvement in the development of scientific cooperation between Poland and Sweden.

Scientists and Engineers of the NCBJ Materials Research Laboratory specialize in analyzes of mechanical, structural and thermal properties and non-destructive tests of modern materials intended for use in Generation IV nuclear reactors. The recently completed modernization of the Laboratory will allow for testing and certification of materials that will be used to construct the first Polish high-temperature gas-cooled reactor – HTGR.

On October 16, 2023, a change took place in the position of Deputy Director for Science at NCBJ. The former director, Professor Ewa Rondio, passed on her duties to Professor Agnieszka Pollo, an astrophysicist who has been successfully leading the rapidly developing Department of Astrophysics.

The team of researchers from France, Poland, and the United Kingdom has proposed a new hypothesis suggesting that interactions between dark matter and neutrinos could shed light on certain anomalies in the distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The details of the analysis have been described in articles published in the prestigious scientific journals, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters and Physics of the Dark Universe.

On October 27, after a modernization break, the MARIA research reactor resumed operation. Thus, the long-awaited production of radioisotopes began again, mainly for medical purposes. In a special letter, the director of NCBJ thanked the people involved in the complex modernization works.

The ceremony for the signing of the Polish-Japanese Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGR) between the Ministry of Climate and Environment and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) took place on November 16th, 2023. NCBJ is the main implementing institution of the agreement on the Polish side.

Defects in the crystal structure of semiconductors used in space and nuclear industry can have an impact on the functioning of devices built with them. A master's student from Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, in collaboration with NCBJ scientists, investigated defects that arise in gallium nitride when bombarded with argon. The use of the McChasy computer program developed in Świerk was a crucial aspect of the research.

The Main Prize in the 19th edition of the Science Popularizer competition was awarded to the Education and Training Division Team at NCBJ. The award was given "For their longstanding contributions to popularizing knowledge about ionizing radiation, radioactivity, nuclear energy, and natural radioactivity. These efforts are of particular significance in the context of implementing Poland's energy transformation program." The competition has been organized for almost 20 years by the Polish Press Agency. In previous years, the institute and its employees have been nominated and awarded multiple times.