European

Nuclear power plays a key role in limiting greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and contributes heavily to improving the EU’s independence, security and diverse energy supply. Yet, its social acceptance is closely linked to enhanced safety when managing long-lived radioactive waste. This contributes to resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this energy source, and ensures a robust and socially acceptable system protecting society and the environment. Among the different safety strategies, partitioning and transmutation (P&T) reduces the amount of radiotoxicity and thermal power of these wastes, and leads to an optimal use of geological repository sites.

In line with SNETP’s Strategic Research Agenda, the SACSESS collaborative project provides a structured framework to enhance the fuel cycle safety associated to P&T. Safety studies will be performed for each selected process to identify weak points to be studied further. These data will be integrated to optimise flowsheets and process operation conditions. A training and education programme addressing safety issues in the nuclear energy industry will be implemented in close collaboration with other European initiatives.

The multidisciplinary consortium composed of European universities, nuclear research bodies, TSOs and industrial stakeholders will generate fundamental safety improvements on the future design of an Advanced Processing Unit.

SACSESS is an essential contribution to the demonstration of the potential benefits of actinide partitioning for global safety of long-lived waste management.

Program FP7-EURATOM-FISSION

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Safety issues are of fundamental importance for the acceptance and sustainable application of nuclear energy. Actinides play a central role in the nuclear fuel cycle from mining, fuel fabrication, energy production, up to treatment of used fuel by reprocessing, partitioning and transmutation and/or finally management and disposal of radioactive waste. A fundamental understanding of actinide properties and behaviour in fuel materials, during the separation processes and once in geological repository is an imperative prerequisite to tackle all the related safety issues. Unravelling the complexity of the principal actinide components of used nuclear fuel certainly represents one of the grand challenges in nuclear science. In order to meet the needs of the safe and sustainable management of nuclear energy, it is therefore essential to maintain highest level of expertise in actinide sciences in Europe and to prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers who will contribute to develop safe actinide management strategies.

Because actinides are radioactive elements, their study requires specific tools and facilities that are only available to a limited extent in Europe. Only a few academic and research organisations have the capabilities and licenses to work on these elements under safe conditions. It is therefore strategic to coordinate the existing actinide infrastructures in Europe, and to strengthen the community of European scientists working on actinides. In the continuation of ACTINET-6 and ACTINET-I3, TALISMAN will foster the networking between existing European infrastructures in actinide sciences open them widely to any European scientists by offering and supporting transnational access to unique facilities.

To meet its objectives, TALISMAN will animate and organize a network of actinide facilities across the EU that will increase our knowledge for a safer management of actinides fostering training and education.

A joint research programme was built by the Karlsruhe ITU (Germany) and the ICSM’s LCPA team

ASGARD is a Large Scale Integrated Project supported by the EU within 7th Framework Programme (EC-GA No. 295825) focusing on research of advanced/novel nuclear fuels fabrication and their respective reprocessing issues for Generation IV reactors.