Projektbeschreibung
Damit Europas Kapazität zur Herstellung medizinischer Radioisotope sicher ist
Die EU ist weltweit der größte Betreiber von Forschungsreaktoren und Lieferant von medizinischen Radioisotopen. Zur sicheren Versorgung der Forschungsreaktoren mit Brennstoffen und Targets ist schwach angereichertes Uran von entscheidender Bedeutung. Der Erfolg hängt von technischen Lösungen zur Umwandlung hochangereicherten Urans in schwach angereichertes Uran in Forschungsreaktoren ab. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt EU-QUALIFY vereint ein multidisziplinäres fachkundiges Team aus den Bereichen Kernbrennstoffdesign und -herstellung, Reaktorbetrieb und Forschung, um zukünftig qualifizierter an diese Kernbrennstoffe und die Fähigkeit zu deren Herstellung heranzugehen. Dank der Ergebnisse dieses Projekts wird die Verfügbarkeit der den Löwenanteil der medizinischen Isotope produzierenden leistungsstarken Forschungsreaktoren in Europa sichergestellt.
Ziel
One of the biggest challenges for European research reactors is securing their nuclear fuel supply to ensure a sustainment of medical isotopes for Europe and the world. This is particularly true for the few operating High Performance Research Reactors (HPRRs) in Europe, which produce the vast majority of medical isotopes. The obligation to convert them from high to low enriched uranium (LEU) nuclear fuels while keeping similar radioisotopes production ratios makes it necessary to develop higher uranium density fuels. The R&D related to that topic was started in previous EURATOM projects (HERACLES-CP and LEU-FOREvER). The main goal of the EU-QUALIFY project is to qualify such fuels and qualify the capability to fabricate such fuels. This will be done by a multi-disciplinary consortium composed of fuel designers/manufactures, reactor operators, research organizations and a university, namely: SCK CEN, CEA, CERCA, ILL, TUM, and G-INP.
The EU-QUALIFY project will build on previous LEU fuel development work with specific focus on the qualification of three particular types of fuels: the dispersed U-Mo, the monolithic U-Mo and the high-loaded dispersed U3Si2 fuels. This qualification will be accomplished through fabrication and concurrent qualification of pilot manufacturing equipment and processes, irradiation under representative irradiation conditions, post-irradiation examinations, as well as modelling of the in-pile behavior to support LEU conversion safety analyses.
This project will contribute to ensuring the availability of HPPR’s, and thus enhance the security of the EU’s capacity in the production of medical radioisotopes. It will thus contribute to health care through provision of innovative medical radioisotopes necessary for diagnostic and therapy and will support European industry by maintaining access to research reactor irradiation capabilities.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
- H2020-Euratom - Euratom Main Programme
- H2020-Euratom-1. - Indirect actions
Finanzierungsplan
RIA - Research and Innovation actionKoordinator
1160 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgien