APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070028-8
The Swierk center is the site of the Soviet-supplied research reactor, EWA, a tank-type reactor which went into operation in 1958 with a design power level of 2 megawatts thermal (MWt) with 10% enriched uranium fuel. With changes in the cooling circuit and the use of higher enriched fuel, the power level of EWA was increased to 4 MWt in 1964, to 8 MWt in 1967, and to 10 MWt in 1969. Other facilities at Swierk are a zero-power exponential assembly for reactor physics studies, called HELENA; a 100-watt graphite-moderated critical assembly, ANNA; and a 10-kilowatt pool-type reactor, MARLYA. ANNA was used in a joint Polish-Norwegian-Yugoslav research program. MARYLA is a prototype of a university-type training reactor and was used to study the different fuels used in EWA. In September 1969 construction was started on a high-flux materials testing reactor that is expected to go into operation in 1974 with a power level at 30 MWt. This reactor, named MARIA, will be operated for several years at 30 MWt level but is expected to be increased to 60 MWt later.
In addition to the reactors, the Swierk site has a 34 million electronvolt (MeV) betatron and a 10-MeV proton linear accelerator. A linear electron accelerator, which provides energy ranging from 4 to 18 MeV, was supplied by the Soviet Union to the IBJ center in Zeran in November 1972. This accelerator is to be used to develop processes for the sterilization of medial equipment.
The IBJ has subordinate to it a Department of Solid-State Physics; a Department of Plasma Physics and Technology, which is carrying out a program for the development of magnetohydrodynamics; and a special Center for Isotope Production and Distribution. All are located in Warsaw, although the isotopes are produced in the reactors at Swierk.
Nuclear research also is underway at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ), formerly a component of IBJ, at Bronowice near Krakow. The principal facilities of the IFJ are a 12.5 MeV (proton) Soviet-supplied cyclotron, and a Polish-made 4 MeV Van de Graaff accelerator. The IFJ is concerned primarily with nuclear reaction problems and studies of the structure of atomic nuclei. The Lodz center of the IBJ carries out studies in radiation chemistry, and a small group is studying cosmic radiation in an underground laboratory for the detection of high-energy mesons and photons. In addition, most of the universities and technical schools and a number of industrial and governmental organizations conduct nuclear research. The office of the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy has direct responsibility for several specialized organizations, including the Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection and the Trust for the Production of Nuclear Equipment, formerly named the Bureau for Nuclear Equipment. Both have headquarters in Warsaw.
The principal Polish application of nuclear energy is the use of radiation or radioisotopes for research, medicine, and industry. A program for the development and production of equipment using radioisotopes is carried out by the Trust for the Production of Nuclear Equipment. The industrial equipment includes devices for nondestructive testing and process research and control. For example, a betatron with a maximum energy of 33 MeV has been installed in the plant laboratory of the Polkowice mining plant for the automatic determination of the copper content of the plant concentrates. The betatron was produced by IBJ, but most of the equipment is produced in the Trust for the Production of Nuclear Equipment plants in Bydgoszcz, Katowice, Krakow, Poznan, Sluzcwiec, Szczecin (Stettin), and Zeran.
During 1970 Poland undertook a study of the prospects for nuclear power. Original plans called for the construction of a 1,000-megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear power station in the Gdansk area by 1980. In 1972 a program developed with the aid of the U.S.S.R. called for the construction of the Soviet 440-MWe Novovoronezh pressurized water type power reactor to go into operation between 1980 and 1982. An additional 1,000-MWe nuclear power capacity is to be added later. A site has been selected near Gdansk; cooling water for the reactor will come from Jezioro Zarnowieckie.
Polish uranium ore is of low grade. Poland supplied minimal amounts of uranium ore to the Soviet Union into 1958 when the operative agreement was not renewed. The IBJ at Zeran has been attempting to develop economic means of extracting uranium from the low-grade ores and has a small pilot plant for uranium concentration. The Institute of Nuclear Technology of the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, Krakow, also is interested in developing methods of detecting uranium ores. The fuel for the reactors in operation at Swierk has been supplied by the U.S.S.R., and it is expected that the Soviets will furnish the fuel for the reactor under construction and the planned nuclear power reactor.
4. Electronics (S)
Electronics research and development programs are modest and of limited international significance. The programs are hampered by shortages of technical personnel, facilities, and high-purity raw materials. It is only in the development of radar equipment,
11
APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070028-8
