Contact Data

Lab Acting Head
DSc. Eng. Łukasz Kurpaska, prof. NCBJ

e-mail: lukasz.kurpaska@ncbj.gov.pl

Head of the laboratory for Structural, Corrosion and Chemical Research 

DSc. Eng. Jarosław Jasiński, prof. NCBJ

e-mail: jaroslaw.jasinski@ncbj.gov.pl

Head of the Non-destructive Testing Laboratory

MSc. Eng. Marcin Kowal

e-mail: marcin.kowal@ncbj.gov.pl

Mechanical Research Laboratory

PhD. Eng. Małgorzata Frelek-Kozak

e-mail: malgorzata.frelek@ncbj.gov.pl

LBM Secretariat

Elżbieta Szulim

e-mail: elzbieta.szulim@ncbj.gov.pl tel. (22) 273 10 62

Basic information

The Mate­rials Rese­arch Labo­ra­tory (LBM) of the Natio­nal Cen­tre for Nuc­lear Rese­arch is loca­ted at the Rese­arch Cen­tre in Świerk, appro­xi­ma­tely 5 km north-east of Otwock and 30 km south-east of War­saw. LBM con­ducts rese­arch, re-appro­val and dia­gno­stic works on con­struc­tion mate­rials and their welded joints in the field of widely under­stood mate­rials science, using destruc­tive and non-destruc­tive methods. Non-irra­dia­ted and irra­dia­ted mate­rials are tested.

LBM inc­lu­des the Labo­ra­tory for Struc­tu­ral, Cor­ro­sion and Che­mi­cal Testing, the Labo­ra­tory of Mecha­ni­cal Testing, the Labo­ra­tory of Non-Destruc­tive Testing and the Work of Hot Cham­bers con­si­sting of a set of 12 lead cham­bers with a maxi­mum shiel­ding of 100 Ci (3.7 × 1012 Bq), equ­ip­ped with appro­priate tech­no­lo­gi­cal instal­la­tions and con­nec­ted to each other by a trans­port tun­nel. The cham­bers are equ­ip­ped with equ­ip­ment for testing the pro­per­ties of irra­dia­ted con­struc­tion mate­rials.

For over thirty years, LBM has been accre­di­ted by the Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion (PCA) as an accre­di­ted rese­arch labo­ra­tory (AB 025). The Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion is a signa­tory of mul­ti­la­te­ral agre­ements within inter­na­tio­nal orga­ni­za­tions ope­ra­ting in the field of accre­di­ta­tion, i. e. EA MLA, IAF MLA and ILAC MRA. For this reason, the results of accre­di­ted acti­vi­ties, inc­lu­ded in the test reports issued by LBM, bear the ILAC MRA label in addi­tion to the PCA accre­di­ta­tion mark, and thus are reco­gni­zed and reco­gni­zed abroad.

The Mate­rial Testing Labo­ra­tory offers rese­arch servi­ces to com­mer­cial enti­ties and scien­ti­fic part­ners. We pro­vide our clients with inde­pen­dent, impar­tial and relia­ble per­for­mance of tests thanks to the imple­men­ted mana­ge­ment sys­tem, in accor­dance with the dec­la­red Quality Policy and the requ­ire­ments of the PN-EN ISO / IEC 17025: 2018–02 stan­dard. The labo­ra­tory main­ta­ins tra­ce­abi­lity in accor­dance with the requ­ire­ments of the rele­vant own pro­ce­du­res and the requ­ire­ments of the Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion.

The employ­ees of the Mate­rial Rese­arch Labo­ra­tory par­ti­ci­pate in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rese­arch pro­jects finan­ced by the Natio­nal Science Cen­tre, the Natio­nal Cen­tre for Rese­arch and Deve­lop­ment, the Foun­da­tion for Polish Science, H2020 instru­ments or the French Embassy in Poland. Rese­arch con­duc­ted by LBM employ­ees focu­ses on the asses­sment of the impact of radia­tion defects in new mate­rials such as: ODS ste­els, nic­kel and zir­co­nium alloys, mar­ten­si­tic-fer­ri­tic ste­els, Al2O3 coatings and gra­phite. LBM pro­du­ces modern mate­rials using the 3D prin­ting method, and toge­ther with coope­ra­ting insti­tu­tions we pro­duce mate­rials using SPS and HIP methods. The coope­ra­tion is car­ried out with leading Polish uni­ver­si­ties and insti­tu­tes (PW, AGH, WAT, IPPT, ITME) and inter­na­tio­nal scien­ti­fic insti­tu­tes (CEA, VTT, IIT, ORNL, JRC, JAEA or CHRTEM).

LBM acti­vely coope­ra­tes with the Mini­stry of Science and Higher Edu­ca­tion, which sup­ports the deve­lop­ment of new rese­arch methods and allows for the main­te­nance of modern scien­ti­fic equ­ip­ment, inc­lu­ding the only group of hot cham­bers in Poland with a pro­tec­tion of 100 Ci, 3.7 TBq. The cham­bers are equ­ip­ped with advan­ced measu­ring equ­ip­ment and ena­ble a num­ber of measu­re­ments of the phy­si­cal, mecha­ni­cal and struc­tu­ral pro­per­ties of active mate­rials. LBM Was desi­gned and built in the 1980 s to test the so-cal­led wit­ness sam­ples from nuc­lear power reac­tors. The asses­sment of the pro­per­ties of wit­ness sam­ples car­ried out over the years of the reac­tor’s ope­ra­tion ena­bles the asses­sment of the degra­da­tion state of the reac­tor’s struc­tu­ral mate­rials. The­re­fore, it is one of the pro­ce­du­res for moni­to­ring the ope­ra­tional safety of a nuc­lear instal­la­tion.