Role of international soft law instruments in nuclear energy law on the case of
implementation CoC on safety of RR in Poland.

Currently in Poland several entities are conducting research on both legal and technical requirements to construct and operate a first high-temperature gas-cooled research reactor. In order to complete mentioned above obligations, there is an emergent need to proceed comprehensive analysis of existing legal framework concerning nuclear law, especially in revision of two legal acts: Polish Atomic Law act and Act on Preparation and Investment in Nuclear Facilities. In this process, inevitably essential will be a comparison between national framework, European Union directives and other legal acts in the international nuclear law regime. However, research reactors are excluded from scope of Convention on Nuclear Safety and „regulated” by Code of Conduct on the Safety of Research Reactors. CoC of RR is a soft law document and therefore could not be binding to Member States. Nevertheless, author will examine whether the current Polish law is adapted to the construction of a HTGR research reactor or should be amended using international legal standards. Moreover, the non-binding character of this document isn’t an obstacle to comprehensive implementation of this quasi-regulation to the Polish nuclear law regime. In this paper author examines the relation between international, regional and domestic legal framework in the research reactors area. Therefore author will analyse the characteristics of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors from a legal and nuclear safety perspective. Specifically, the potential difference of HTGR reactors from pressurised water reactors in accordance with their role in nuclear cogeneration will be presented.