  The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Beamlines is a laser driven
accelerator facility located in the outskirts of the city of Prague. With its
state-of-the-art lasers, it will carry out an ambitious and diverse research
program. Activities at ELI Beamlines can be broken down in complementary areas
of scientific interest: development and testing of novel technologies for
multi-PW laser systems, plasma physics, high field physics experiments,
production of femtosecond secondary sources of ionizing radiation (extreme
ultraviolet radiation, X rays, gamma, electrons, and protons)to be used in
interdisciplinary applications in physics, biology, medicine, and material
sciences.In-house experiments are already taking place since the first half of
2018, first user calls and experiments started in 2019.In this contribution,
the ELI Beamlines accelerator facility and its current status of operation are
presented in more details. Particular attention is paid to the design and
implementation of the radiation protection program, with emphasis on the unique
challenges this laser facility poses in terms of radiation safety.
