Descrizione del progetto
Garantire le capacità dell’Europa nella produzione di radioisotopi medici
L’UE è il maggiore gestore al mondo di reattori di ricerca nonché fornitore di radioisotopi medici. Per garantire l’approvvigionamento dei combustibili e il raggiungimento degli obiettivi dei reattori di ricerca, l’uranio a basso arricchimento (LEU, Low-Enriched Uranium) è fondamentale. Il successo dipende dalle soluzioni tecnologiche per la conversione dell’uranio ad alto arricchimento in LEU nei reattori di ricerca. Il progetto EU-QUALIFY, finanziato dall’UE, riunirà un gruppo multidisciplinare composto da esperti, tra cui progettisti e produttori di combustibili, operatori di reattori e ricercatori per la qualificazione di tali combustibili e della capacità per realizzarli. I risultati di questo progetto garantiranno la disponibilità di reattori di ricerca ad alte prestazioni in Europa, responsabili della produzione della gran parte di isotopi medici.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
- H2020-Euratom - Euratom Main Programme
- H2020-Euratom-1. - Indirect actions
Meccanismo di finanziamento
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinatore
1160 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgio