Nuclear law and the role of suppliers and subcontractors – what the law requires of you

Entering the nuclear power plant supply chain is not just an opportunity to win a contract – it is an obligation to comply with very specific legal requirements, regardless of your position in the chain. This article explains how the liability system works and what it means for your company.

Responsibility focuses on a licensee – but covers the entire chain

The system is based on the principle that the head (in practice, the management board) of an organizational unit holding a license to conduct activities connected with a possible threat, such as the construction, commissioning, operation, or decommissioning of a nuclear facility, is responsible for ensuring nuclear safety, radiation protection, physical protection, and the security of nuclear materials.

An organizational unit is an entity (company, entrepreneur) that obtains a license from the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency (“NAEA”) to conduct nuclear activities (licensee). In the project for the Polish nuclear power plant EJ1, that organizational unit is – at the current stage – the company Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe sp. z o.o. (PEJ), which is the investor and future operator. In the future, particularly if SMR-type projects become more popular, this could be companies such as KGHM Polska Miedź or Orlen Synthos Green Energy.

What is of particular importance to supply chain participants is that this responsibility also includes the head of an organizational unit’s liability for the actions of subcontractors and suppliers that may affect the nuclear safety, radiation protection, physical protection, or nuclear material security of a nuclear facility. This responsibility is ongoing in nature, that is, it ceases only on the date when the President of the Agency approves the report on the decommissioning of a nuclear facility.

Nuclear law therefore does not allow the licensee to “pass on” regulatory responsibility down the supply chain. Regardless of the extent of the subcontracting structure, the regulator, namely, the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency, always “looks” to the investor and operator. The risk of a subcontractor violating safety requirements legally falls on the licensee.

Each participant’s own obligations – “layered” responsibility

Regardless of the obligations of the head of an organizational unit, the responsibility for meeting requirements of nuclear safety, radiation protection, physical protection, and nuclear material security also rests with other participants in the investment process, in accordance with the scope of their tasks. This implies layered responsibility, where the licensee is the primary recipient of the regulator’s requirements, but the other participants in the project – the general contractor, designers, and component manufacturers – bear their own, parallel obligations arising directly from the Nuclear Law Act. The supplier of a component classified as safety-critical may not rely solely on the client’s contractual requirements.

Requirements for suppliers and subcontractors: human resources and quality systems

The head of an organizational unit ensures that subcontractors and suppliers whose activities may affect safety maintain human resources appropriate for the performance of those activities. The licensee must not only to select suppliers and subcontractors based on quality criteria at the contracting stage, but also to continuously monitor whether the human resources of the supply chain are maintained throughout the entire construction and operation period (nuclear power plants are designed for 60–80 years of operation). A change in key specialists on the supplier’s side may pose a problem that requires the investor to intervene.

Contractors and suppliers of systems, structural elements, and equipment for a nuclear facility, as well as contractors performing construction and outfitting works of a nuclear facility, must have appropriate quality management systems in place for the works they perform.

Not every supplier is subject to the same requirements – safety classification

For every system and component of a nuclear facility’s structure and equipment that is significant for nuclear safety and radiation protection, including control and monitoring software, a safety class is assigned. The class depends on the extent to which those systems and components affect the nuclear safety and radiation protection of the nuclear facility.

Suppliers of safety-class components are subject are subject to far stricter quality, audit, and inspection requirements than suppliers of non-safety-related components. Entering this segment of the supply chain often requires years of preparation and investment in quality management systems – typically compliance with Nuclear Quality Assurance standards such as ASME NQA-1 or equivalent IAEA standards.

Employee qualifications – statutory requirements

An employee may be authorized to work with nuclear material, sources of ionizing radiation, radioactive waste, or spent nuclear fuel, as well as to work at a nuclear facility, provided that they possess knowledge of nuclear safety and radiation protection requirements appropriate to the position, along with the necessary skills as defined by training programs.

In the case of a nuclear power plant, training includes performing work tasks on simulators of the plant’s actual nuclear equipment. The head of an organizational unit appoints a committee to assess employees’ professional qualifications, which evaluates the knowledge employees have acquired during training through an examination; a person who fails the examination is not authorized to work in a nuclear power plant.

For positions of particular importance – in an organizational unit in a position that is critical for ensuring nuclear safety and radiation protection within a specific specialty – only a person holding a license issued by the President of the Agency may be employed.

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This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Any business and legal decisions regarding participation in nuclear projects should be preceded by obtaining a specialist legal opinion that accounts for the individual situation of the entity.

Our law office is ready to provide you with legal assistance regarding participation in the nuclear power plant project in Poland, both at the stage of analysis of possibilities to enter the supply chain as well as at the stage of negotiations and drafting agreements with a general investor or further subcontractors.