ROSATOM Western Europe presented Russia’s recent developments in nuclear fuel cycle and the approaches of ROSATOM towards cooperation in this domain at Les Entretiens Européens 2018 conference in Paris on October 18, 2018.
According to Andrey Rozhdestvin, CEO of ROSATOM Western Europe, the global nuclear industry needs to foster the international cooperation in the spheres of spent fuel and nuclear waste in order to handle the related challenges in an environmentally, socially and commercially viable way. He pointed out that the nuclear fuel cycle closure may become a new global endeavour for the nuclear industry players.
“ROSATOM is working to continually develop the technological base to provide a practical solution for the closure of the NFC with fast neutron reactors as the cornerstone of the NFC closure”, said Andrey Rozhdestvin. According to him, Russia is the only country that commercially operates two fast neutron reactors of large capacity - BN-600 and BN-800 - at Beloyarsk NPP and the works are underway to fully load the core of BN-800 reactor with MOX fuel in the future.
He shared the examples of cooperation between ROSATOM and the French nuclear industry companies. Together with FRAMATOME, TVEL Fuel Company of ROSATOM has been producing nuclear fuel from reprocessed uranium for the European reactors from 1996. Another example is the ongoing industrial cooperation with EDF aimed at recycling of the reprocessed uranium produced in France.
Andrey Rozhdestvin also emphasised that R&D projects executed at the international level can lay the groundwork for the NFC sustainability. For instance, ROSATOM is partnering with French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission to develop sodium fast reactors projects: MBIR in Russia and ASTRID in France.
Organised by ASCPE and supported by the European Commission, this year’s edition of Les Entretiens Européens is titled “Management of spent fuel and nuclear waste in Europe: solutions exist, they must be implemented”. It included hearings and roundtables that brought together more than 50 industrial, territorial and institutional actors in Europe and all over the world.
