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 Information

EU-CONVERSION

Grant agreement ID: 101163752

EC signature date 5 June 2024

Start date 1 October 2024

End date 30 September 2028

Funded under

• Euratom Research and Training Programme (EURATOM)

Total cost

€ 9 030 565,00

EU contribution

€ 7 640 768,00

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EU-CONVERSION (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)

Reporting period: 2024-10-01 to 2026-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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 EUCONVERSION 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.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first reporting period, the consortium made substantial progress in the technical activities of EU-CONVERSION, including fuel fabrication, irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination activities and modelling efforts supporting the development and qualification of advanced LEU fuel systems for European high-performance research reactors. In addition, disseminating activities were started as planned.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

N.A.