On 1 December 2021, ROSATOM State Corporation, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and EDF signed a joint declaration of intent to develop their long-term R&D collaboration in the field of civil nuclear power.
The declaration states an experimentation at laboratory scale, involving all the steps required to recycle second-generation plutonium from spent MOX fuel, in GEN IV fast reactors.
This second-generation plutonium will be used to fabricate experimental fuel pellets that will then be simultaneously irradiated, in the same experimental rig, in a research fast neutron reactor, starting from mid-2020’s.
This R&D collaboration aims to demonstrate the possibility to recycle valuable materials from current generation of light-water reactors MOX fuels in fast neutron reactors. This would contribute to significantly increase the sustainability of the nuclear power industry.