Euratom innovation in nuclear fission: Community research in reactor systems and fuel cycles

✍ Scribed by G. Van Goethem; M. Hugon; V. Bhatnagar; P. Manolatos; M. Deffrennes

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 524 KB
• Volume: 237
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-5493
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2006.10.005

✦ Synopsis

The following questions are naturally at the heart of the current Euratom research and training framework programme:

(1) What are the challenges facing the European Union nuclear fission research community in the short (today), medium (2010) and long term (2040)? (2) What kind of research and technological development (RTD) does Euratom offer to respond to these challenges, in particular in the area of reactor systems and fuel cycles?

In the general debate about energy supply technologies there are challenges of both a scientific and technological (S/T) as well as an economic and political (E/P) nature. Though the Community research programme acts mainly on the former, there is nevertheless important links with Community policy. These not only exist in the specific area of nuclear policy, but also more generally as is depicted in the following figure. It is shown in the particular area of nuclear fission, to what extent Euratom research, education and innovation ("Knowledge Triangle" in above figure) respond to the following long-term criteria: (1) sustainability, (2) economics, (3) safety, and (4) proliferation resistance.

Research and innovation in nuclear fission technology has broad and extended geographical, disciplinary and time horizons: