PATRICIA

Start date 1 September 2020
End date 31 August 2024
Project cost € 8 924 940,63
Project funding € 6 499 979,50
UNIPI quota € 75 000
Call title NFRP-2019-2020
Funding scheme RIA - Research and Innovation action
UNIPI role Partner

Website

Principal investigator: Nicola Forgione

Nuclear power has low CO2 emissions and is a sustainable energy source. However, its safety and waste issues cannot be disregarded. The solution for achieving reduced nuclear waste is to recycle spent fuel. To address this challenge, the EU-funded PATRICIA project aims to follow the EU’s plan for sustainable nuclear energy that describes the technical needs of fuel recycling. To this end, the project will investigate advanced partitioning to efficiently separate the radioactive chemical americium from spent fuel, and it will study the development of transmutation systems. It will also explore the behaviour of americium-bearing fuel under irradiation and conduct safety-related research. The project’s results will pave the way for better radioactive waste management and use of fuel resources.

Climate change is one of the main issues facing humanity. Due to its low CO2 emission, nuclear power is part of a sustainable energy mix. However, safety and waste issues cannot be taken lightly. For the latter the way forward is to recycle spent fuel with the goal to close the fuel cycle. This eases ultimate radioactive waste management, increases proliferation resistance and drastically improves economy and sustainability by better use of fuel resources.

The SNETP deployment plan describes a technical needs fuel recycling including partitioning of spent fuel, fabrication and characterisation of minor actinide bearing fuel and the development of transmutation systems. This proposal follows that plan and answers to NRFP7 of the 2018-2019 EURATOM call: Research and Innovation for Partitioning and/or Transmutation. It focusses on research on advanced partitioning to efficiently separate Am from spent fuel, on experimental and fuel performance code development work studying the behaviour of Am bearing fuel under irradiation and on the safety related research supporting the licensing process of MYRRHA in its role in the development trajectory for a dedicated accelerator driven transmuter. It may be noted that for first time, the communities working of partitioning, transmutation and the development of MYRRHA are joint in one project.

Besides the technical work described above, dedicated work packages deals with education focussing on pre-and post-graduate students, and with dissemination where besides the specific stakeholders also high school pupils and the general public is targeted. A further task on knowledge management includes the both foreground data as well as metadata to so ensure proper QA for V&V is possible. The project is performed using a combination of experiments, theoretical studies and numerical simulations for which the expertise of 26 research centres and universities from 14 EU countries, Switzerland, Korea, Russia and the US is pooled.

Coordinator

STUDIECENTRUM VOOR KERNENERGIE / CENTRE D'ETUDE DE L'ENERGIE NUCLEAIRE, Belgium

Participants

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, France
CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLA AB, Sweden
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES ENERGETICAS, MEDIOAMBIENTALES Y TECNOLOGICAS-CIEMAT, Spain
FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JULICH GMBH, Germany
NATIONAL NUCLEAR LABORATORY LIMITED, United Kingdom
POLITECNICO DI MILANO, Italy
RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG, Germany
UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, United Kingdom
CENTRUM VYZKUMU REZ SRO, Czechia
JRC -JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE- EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Belgium
KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE, Germany
KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN, Sweden
NUCLEAR RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY GROUP, Netherlands
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT, Netherlands
Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy, Finland
AGENZIA NAZIONALE PER LE NUOVE TECNOLOGIE, L'ENERGIA E LO SVILUPPO ECONOMICO SOSTENIBILE, Italy
REGIA AUTONOMA TEHNOLOGII PENTRU ENERGIA NUCLEARA – RATEN, Romania
EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH, Switzerland
CENTRO DI RICERCA, SVILUPPO E STUDI SUPERIORI IN SARDEGNA SOCIETÀ A RESPONSABILITÀ LIMITATA, Italy
INSTITUT VON KARMAN DE DYNAMIQUE DES FLUIDES, Belgium
PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUT, Switzerland
UNIVERSITEIT GENT, Belgium
TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION, United States
AKTSIONERNOE OBSHCHESTVO GOSUDARSTVENNYI NAUCHNYI TENTRE ROSSIESKOI FEDERATSII FIZIKO ENERGETICHESKII INSTITUT IMENI AI LEIPUNGSKOGO, Russia
KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, South Korea
UNIVERSITA DI PISA, Italy