Endoscopic inspections of difficult to access piping on the high-flux research reactor (HFR) at Petten in the Netherlands have given a strong indication about the origin of a leak and provided important information for assessing the root cause, NRG, the company which operates the Petten HFR on behalf of the European Union’s Joint Research Centre, said.

NRG said a project team is working on various possible solutions to be able to safely put the HFR back into operation. “These options will be worked out in more detail this week and risks mapped out, based on which a solution direction can probably be selected in the course of the week,” a 2 February statement said.

“After that, a schedule will be made and the proposal will be submitted to the supervisory authorities.”