Current Status

NUCLEAR FISSION The 128 Nuclear Power Plantshttp://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/countryprofiles/others/european-union.aspx (NPPs) are supplying 815.2 TWh (about 30% of electricity) in the EU. 4 NPPs are under construction and 24 in planning. Nuclear power thus plays an important role to provide a stable, base load electricity. The main strategic objectives are the safety aspects and the long-term waste disposal. The previous landscape analysis  made a detailed list of aimings towards these objectives. Since the analysis is rather recent, no major change has occurred. In the field of Accelerator Driven System which could be used for transmutation of long-lived actinides, a staged approach was adopted by the ESFRI Project MYRRHA, leading to the full realisation of the facility by 2030. 

In many countries, the issue of prolonging the life of existing NPPs leads to the development of materials research under nuclear irradiation. This could be done through experiments and numerical simulations. The latter, with the development of high performance computers (HPC), has great potential for a cross-fertilisation with other materials science in general, and in particular in the field of nuclear fusion (see below).

In view of the ageing of NPPs, as well as the decision from some countries to step out of nuclear energy, the issue of the dismantling of NPPs is becoming an important one. Many Master Programmes have included this topic in their cursus.

Present NPPs are based on three main concepts (Heavy Water, Pressurized Water or Boiling Water). The Generation IV Initiative offers the perspective of a better use of the fuel, increase of safety and reducing the amount of long-lived waste. Another new development of interest that should be encouraged is the Small Modular Reactor, delivering about 300 MWe.

NUCLEAR FUSION The European fusion programmehttps://www.euro-fusion.org/programme/ has two main objectives, to prepare the successful operation of ITER and the preparation of DEMO. The construction of the ITER tokamak is now moving at full speed, with a first plasma by 2025 and the D-T operation by the end of 2035.

From a physics perspective, two concepts are being explored in the Euratom programme, the tokamak and the stellarator. The consortium EUROfusion operates all the main installations, the tokamaks ASDEX-Upgrade, JET, MAST, TCV and WEST and the superconducting stellarator W7-X. For the study of the physics of the divertor – a key element where heat and particles are exhausted from the plasma – a dedicated device, the Divertor Test Tokamak (DTT)Italy is considering the funding of DTT as a national programme while waiting for a later funding by EUROfusion, is being considered and was recently approved. In the framework of the Broader Approach (BA) AgreementThe Broader Approach agreement between Japan and EURATOM covers many other activitie http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/understandingfusion/broaderapproach.aspx EU and Japan are building a new superconducting tokamak JT-60SA, which will be jointly exploited by EU and Japanese teams.

The second main objective of the EU fusion programme is the design of a DEMOnstration fusion reactor. DEMO will produce a substantial amount of electricity and be self-sufficient in TritiumTritium, a « fuel » of the fusion reactor does not exist in nature and must be produced by the fusion reactor itself, if one considers an industrial deployment of fusion electricity. and is scheduled to be operational by the mid of the 21st century. During Horizon 2020, DEMO work will be in the pre-conceptual phase, where many design concepts are examined, and a concept selection will be performed in FP9.

The construction of a fusion reactor relies on the knowledge of suitable material under the irradiation by 14 MeV neutrons. Within the BA, R&D for the neutron irradiation source IFMIF is being developed for critical components. However, the BA does not foresee its construction. The EUROfusion programme – based on the roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy – still supports IFMIF and proposes the ESFRI. Project IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-Demo Oriented NEutron Source) as an interim step.

The EUROfusion programme benefitted since its beginning from the HELIOS HPC in Rokkasho. After its decommissioning, since 2016, a new European HPC Marconi-Fusion is in operation with a capacity of 6 petaflops. This opens up new possibilities for fusion plasma simulation as well as for materials science. 

Both fission and fusion are part of EURATOM. The impact of the Brexit on these two fields is still to be negotiated. In the case of fusion, JET is the main and largest tokamak in operation with the ability to operate with D-T mixture and plays a pivotal role in the scientific preparation of ITER. How the issue will be solved will have impact on the medium term fusion programme.

CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES BETWEEN FISSION AND FUSION Many topics are common to fission and fusion. Materials research is the most prominent one. For fission it is a key element for the prolongation of NPP operation. For fusion, the qualification of suitable material is crucial for the construction of a fusion reactor. As mentioned, the field of experimental investigation and numerical simulation are cross-cutting fields. Another cross-cutting issue is the development of accelerator to be used in ADS for fission and neutron source for fusion material irradiation.

GAPS, CHALLENGES AND FUTURE NEEDS

Two main gaps have been identified: i) for fission, the interest in SMR should trigger an experimental effort in this field; ii) for fusion, the issue of the divertor and of material development require the implementation of the ESFRI Project IFMIF-DONES device.

As research on nuclear energy is linked to national policies on the use of nuclear generated  electricity, the above considerations of the research goals in this area do not engage, in any ways, national financial or political commitments.