Project information

The Świerk Computing Centre is located within the National Centre for Nuclear Research in Świerk near Otwock. The main task of CIŚ will be to ensure computing support for Polish power industry, including nuclear power engineering. The Centre participates in carrying out tasks related to: the monitoring of radiological and chemical hazards, reactor calculations, configurations and operational simulations of nuclear power plants, calculations for the Power Quality Park. Moreover, the Centre will serve for scientific and development research, e.g. plasma research, materials technologies, processing data from nuclear and high energy physics experiments. The tasks set for the Świerk Computing Centre require optimal solutions and pursuit of constant development. In order to achieve this, it is worthwhile to use services of the highest standard, which guarantee responsible and professional execution.

The Centre functions as a computer cluster with high computing power equipped with high capacity mass storage. The functional elements are connected through a fast local network, and the external connectivity is based on a dedicated optical link to a national backbone network. Users availing themselves of the services of the Centre have access to cutting-edge technology as well as scientific potential and rich infrastructure.

Rationale for the project

The Świerk Computing Centre (CIŚ) is the answer to the increasing demand for comprehensive computing solutions related to the development of nuclear power engineering in our country. Poland has begun to realize the advantages of atomic energy and its application in many branches of economy, and consequently – has decided to invest in its development.

Nevertheless, it is not sufficient to become involved in the development of nuclear power engineering itself since what the field requires above all else are cutting-edge, effective and intelligent computing solutions, which allow for fast and reliable data processing for the purpose of national nuclear power engineering and conventional power industry, simulations and monitoring of radiological hazards as well as scientific and development research in related fields.

The Świerk Computing Centre will provide services for entities involved in energy production and distribution as well as its supervision and security. Fully qualified scientific and research staff as well as new-generation technologies applied will ensure high quality of the services.

The recipients will include both production entities (e.g. power plants) and scientific and research ones (e.g. institutes of the Atomic Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, universities) as well as supervisory entities (e.g. the National Atomic Energy Agency, Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection). The users will come from both the public and private sector and their activities need not be limited to the aforementioned fields.  

We see it as important that CIŚ becomes a unit providing advanced, highest-quality data communications services in the country; nevertheless, its main aim and responsibility will be to provide services for data requiring security and for operational services of national importance. Some examples include the monitoring and simulations of radiation events, crisis management, reactor calculations for the design, installation and optimization of power devices and energy distribution.

A further responsibility and task of the Świerk Computing Centre will be to provide resources and services for scientific and technological research.

The location of CIŚ is yet another advantage of the endeavour. The proximity of Warsaw, its own large grounds and voivodeship authorities' plans regarding Świerk make it one of the leading regions attractive to advanced technological activities. The location of the Centre in Świerk allows for easy access to the largest Polish market in Central Europe as well as collaboration with teams of vast scientific and research potential and ensures rich laboratory and workshop base. Further significant advantages include the MARIA reactor located at the centre and plans for a free-electron laser.

The Świerk Computing Centre is closely connected with power industry – a priority area in the country – and its establishment is an important step in realizing expected national investments in power industry, the aim of which is to generate energy from nuclear processes.

CIŚ plans to collaborate with PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A. – a power industry tycoon which has a chance to implement the construction of a nuclear power plant in Poland. In accordance with government's plans, two nuclear power plants will be built in Poland by 2030. Hence the value of CIŚ, which works to the benefit of the future nuclear power plant, in developing the priority areas in Polish energy policy.

It is worthy of note that the Świerk Computing Centre furthers supra-regional aims such as, among others, the monitoring of national radiological and chemical hazards. The fact that CIŚ will be a coordinating centre for such tasks in the country prevents the dispersal of activities related and improves their effectiveness through ensuring appropriate computing infrastructure, teams of competent experts, staff training and constant contacts with foreign centres.

This provides essential support for national administration, solely responsible, according to European Union regulations, for carrying out civil protection tasks, which the EU institutions only co-ordinate and provide local support to. The increased sense of security and public trust in the issues related to nuclear power engineering are essential elements of hazard analysis. It is worth mentioning that the Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant, built between 1982 and 1990, was prevented from being put into operation in the wake of great public outcry and negative attitude of the society. Such unfavourable attitude can be changed by convincing the public opinion of the effectiveness of safety measures at planned power plants. Their creation and testing are an important part of the activities of the Centre.

It is worthy of note that the Computing Centre in Świerk has an influence on the increase in regional and national competitiveness. Technological advancement gives economic advantage, especially in a situation in which the market demands new innovative solutions and properties of products offered. They are achieved mainly through scientific research and implementation of cutting-edge technologies. This stimulates the demand for advanced technology, generated by the need to gain competitive position in economy. The Centre in Świerk will satisfy the increasing demand for computing services and technologies, thus exerting direct influence on the development of local economy and increasing the competitiveness of the whole region.

CIŚ is closely connected with many spheres of economy, administration, scientific and development research. Those connections are and will be realized in subsequent years as follows:

Economy

A nuclear power plant requires intensive simulations and operational calculations at various stages of its construction or operation. The calculations are indispensable for the implementation and success of the programme and constitute its integral part. The optimal energy distribution from diversified sources allows for the optimization of the recipients' energy expenses, maximization of the distributors' profits and minimization of the risk of interruption of the energy supply. Moreover, the monitoring data and optimization tools will allow for effective designing or redesigning of national energy grids. The solutions should also find application in communication, e.g. traffic planning in road and air networks. It is planned to use CIŚ resources for a nuclear-coal synergy project, which should in the future constitute an essential contribution to ensuring the effectiveness of energy production in Poland. Entities operating within the Technology Park – an incubator for technology companies in the Masovian Voivodeship – will gain a direct economic advantage from the computing support. Similar effects, though in the form of more extensive and larger-scale activities, may be produced through the implementation and technological development of large research infrastructures – free-electron lasers, which feature on the "road map" prepared by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Administration

The monitoring of national radiological hazards is one of the responsibilities of national administration. A rather weak computing infrastructure is used to that effect at present. Within the framework of CIŚ activities it is planned to increase the computing power for those tasks by at least one order of magnitude relative to the existing one, modernize the authorized personnel access to results, improve data transmission and ensure its security. This should improve the quality of incident management and have a positive influence on the speed and accuracy of decision making processes in crisis situations. Similar advantages are gained from analogical activities in terms of the monitoring of national chemical hazards. Both crisis management systems will be equipped with an interactive alarm handling system with help desk software. It will allow for an effective management and insight into all signals received from monitoring stations in the country and abroad.   

Scientific and development research

It is not the aim of the Świerk Computing Centre to duplicate purely academic activity, which is currently supported by powerful computing centres located at several universities in the country. Nevertheless, since both the Institute for Nuclear Studies and several collaborating institutions are dedicated to the pursuit of pure science, CIŚ will support academic research by making available computing and memory resources which are free at a given time. This will allow for the optimal use of the equipment and maintenance of high intellectual activity of the centre as well as its status as a research institution. This concerns in particular the fields traditionally highly dependent on computer science, among which CIŚ enjoys a high status, that is nuclear and elementary particle physics and astrophysics. There are plans for a very close link between CIŚ and large research infrastructures POLFEL and XFEL, in which scientific research constitutes an essential part of the program. It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned infrastructures require reliable local computing support on account of large amount of data produced, complexity of calculations and data acquisition system. Remote collocation centres are insufficient for all types of activities planned in the case of such large research infrastructures. The large research and development department within CIŚ, the presence of which is a consequence of the nature of the activities of the Centre, should generate considerable scientific value in the field of discrete optimization, data security technology, network research, grid technologies and cloud computing.   

The objectives of the Centre are consistent with and will be integrated with the science policy of the country as well as strategic documents such as the National Development Strategy 2007-2015, Sector Strategies, Voivodeship Development Strategies, Regional Development Strategies and Science Development Strategies.

The Świerk Computing Centre is connected with and ties in with the objectives of the ESFRI Roadmap (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) drawn up by the European Commission and the EU's Framework Programme (2007-2013), which is the largest scientific research and technological development financing programme in Europe. The Centre pursues similar aims as the Commission of the European Communities EUREKA initiative from 1985, of which Poland has been a member since 1995.   

CIŚ will find application in many thematic groups of the Operational Programme Innovative Economy (OPIE). The scope of the Info thematic group will be carried out by running the project itself as well as benefitting from its direct product, which will be the cutting-edge Computing Centre. The construction of the Centre itself as well as the innovative technical and technological solutions applied for the purpose of the unit will provide many new issues and solutions, which will carry out another thematic group of OPIE – the Techno group. The Bio Thematic group will be carried out thanks to computing support for research into organic macromolecules with the use of free-electron lasers. The CIŚ Project as a whole ties in with the general aim of OPIE, ensuring the increase in innovativeness and competitiveness of the National Centre for Nuclear Research.

In conclusion, CIŚ will be the answer to the considerable needs of the development of nuclear power engineering in Poland, not only ensuring rich scientific and infrastructural base and comprehensive data communications solutions but also becoming a safeguard against radiological and chemical contamination in Poland. Apart from nuclear power engineering itself, it provide many different entities with the opportunity to conduct research, have a considerable influence on the development of the whole region and through advanced international collaboration – on improving the international status of Poland.