Agreement Signed On Preparatory Work For European Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor
Written by NucNet
Friday, 28 May 2010
Representatives of three central European nuclear research institutions have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the preparatory phase of a project to build a gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) called Allegro.
The plan is for Allegro to be a demonstration facility with construction taking place during the period 2014 to 2022.
The idea for the Allegro project originally came from the French Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA).
The three central European countries supporting the project are the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The nuclear research establishments involved are the Czech Republic’s Nuclear Research Institute ež AS, Hungary’s MTA KFKI Atomic Research Institute and Slovakia’s engineering company VUJE AS Trnava.
The project’s objectives include determining whether a GFR unit could be an alternative to sodium-cooled fast reactors, and demonstrating the viability of key GFR technologies. The GFR is on the list of targets of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), which sees 12 member countries and Euratom (the European Atomic Energy Community) working together to lay the groundwork for a Generation IV nuclear reactor.
The three institutions will start joint preparatory work with the technical support of CEA. The memorandum determines a number of activities to be carried out within to 2-3 years, including site selection.
The Allegro project will contribute to solving challenges faced by scientists and engineers working on GFRs, such as helium technology, materials qualification, fuel qualification, core physics and safety of mixed oxide fuel cores, and computer codes for fast reactor technology.
