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Supplying the European Research Reactors with Safe Low-Enriched Uranium Fuels for Their Conversion and Long-Term Operation to Secure the Supply of Medical Radioisotopes

Project description

Safe low-enriched uranium fuels supply secure medical radioisotopes

Europe is the world’s largest supplier and user of medical radioisotopes. Ensuring a secure supply of these isotopes is crucial. High-power and medium-power research reactors play a vital role in producing these isotopes. The EU-funded EU-CONVERSION project aims to secure supply chains by providing safe, low-enriched uranium fuels for the conversion from highly-enriched uranium, and for long-term operation of the European research reactors. The project will build trust with nuclear regulators and support organisations, and develop advanced computational methods for nuclear safety. Additionally, it will contribute to European strategic goals by consolidating fuel qualification data, conducting representative tests, and establishing efficient supply chains for advanced research reactor fuels.

Objective

Europe is the world’s largest supplier and among the world’s largest users of medical radioisotopes. A secure supply of these isotopes is key to support a safe, high quality and reliable use of radiological and nuclear technology in healthcare. As most medical radioisotopes are produced by the European HPRRs (high-power research reactors) and MPRRs (medium-power research reactors), these reactors play a major role for the time-critical supply chain of these radioisotopes, but also for fundamental and applied research using neutrons. The proposed project EU-CONVERSION will contribute to securing these supply chains via the supply of safe low-enriched uranium fuels for the HEU to LEU conversion and long-term operation of the European research reactors. To facilitate their deployment, the project will generate the necessary trust at the nuclear regulators and technical support organizations for the challenges of the upcoming conversions, including the use of digital technologies and advanced computational methods in nuclear safety. In a long term, the knowledge and innovations created within this project will also contribute to the European strategic goals to maintain a world-leading innovative nuclear industry, and to increase the competencies in nuclear technology.

To achieve these objectives, the proposed actions within EU-CONVERSION include the consolidation of generic fuel qualification data together with two reactor-representative irradiation tests for HPRR conversions, the demonstration of sustainable and efficient European supply chains for advanced LEU research reactor fuels for HPRRs and MPRRs, as well as the establishment of modern computational methods for nuclear safety analysis and fuel performance modeling.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

EURATOM-IA - EURATOM Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01

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Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 988 160,00
Address
Arcisstrasse 21
80333 Muenchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 993 160,00

Participants (8)

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