24 Jul (NucNet): Four nuclear research institutes and engineering companies from central Europe’s Visegrád Group (V4) of nations are to establish a centre of excellence for joint research, development and innovation in Generation-IV nuclear reactors.
The V4G4 Centre of Excellence, to be registered in Slovakia and managed by a steering committee, is being set up by scientific and research engineering company ÚJV Řež AS of the Czech Republic, the Academy of Sciences Centre for Energy Research (MTA EK) of Hungary, Poland’s National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) and engineering company VUJE AS of Slovakia.
The directors of the four organisations signed the document establishing the V4G4 Centre of Excellence in Budapest on 18 July.
In a statement, the V4G4 said its aim is to “establish the scientific background” for engineering gas-cooled fast reactors (GFR) and to carry out corresponding experiments.
“We hope that the Allegro demonstrator can be built on this basis in the next decade”, the statement said.
Allegro is to be a GFR with a thermal capacity in the range of 50-80 megawatts. It has funding support as a demonstration project of the Generation IV International Forum, in which France, Japan, Switzerland and the EU are partners on the GFR concept.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have agreed to make a joint proposal to host the project.
The V4G4 said the Centre of Excellence has the scientific support of France’s Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (atomic and alternative energy commission; CEA), which has experience of fast reactors and developed the first GFR concept.
The V4G4 said the V4 countries had decided to base their future energy mix on nuclear and renewables to decrease their dependence on fossil fuels.
The V4 grouping was agreed in 1991 in the Hungarian city of Visegrád.
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Dalton at david.dalton@nucnet.org
