Pierre D'hondt – Acting General Manager
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INTRODUCTION Pierre D'hondt – acting general manager A new mission SCK•CEN has been founded in 1952 to support the launching of nuclear scientific and industrial activities in Belgium. An important scientific research infrastructure and manpower is available to cover a comprehensive programme on the development of the nuclear fuel cycle. In 1991 our mission has been focused on the safety aspects of this cycle. Today our mission is: to perform research in priority to aspects related to safety, waste management, protection of men and environment, safeguarding of fuel and other strategic materials and to the social implications in an perspective of sustainable development; to develop, collect and disseminate the necessary knowledge through education and communication; to render services which are requested in our domain by the nuclear industry, the medical sector and the authorities to make the necessary multi-disciplinary scientific contacts related to the energy issues. Our infrastructure and skills To perform our mission, SCK•CEN is running large infrastructures: BR1 is the first Belgian research reactor started in 1956 and is still operational. This reactor is used for scientific research and education. BR2 is our materials testing reactor and plays an important role in research towards the behaviour of materials and fuel under irradiation. This research contributes to the safe exploitation of our Belgian and international reactors for electricity production. Hot-cells: SCK•CEN has, besides his research reactor, also an important hot-cell infrastructure to test the highly irradiated materials. BR3 was the first pressurized water reactor in Western-Europe. After 25 years of operation, this reactor was stopped in 1987 and is now under dismantling. It serves as a tool to test different cutting, dismantling and decontamination techniques. HADES is an underground laboratory in clay and serves as a test facility to study the deep geological disposal for high radioactive waste. MYRRHA is an Accelerator Driven System, still under study and design and should be a test bank for the future for transmutation for high radioactive waste. This system is nowadays largely imbedded in the European programme on P&T (Partitioning and Transmutation) called IP-EUROTRANS. www.sckcen.be Operational Office: Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol – Scientific Report 2005 Our personnel is our future The personnel of SCK•CEN consists of highly skilled people working in domains such as reactor safety, reactor physics, materials research, instrumentation, radiochemistry, radiation protection, waste management and disposal, fusion, safeguards... These skills are needed now and in the future for the safe exploitation of nuclear installations and the related waste management and the protection of men and environment. Therefore, SCK•CEN continues to contribute to training and education of nuclear engineers through the BNEN programme, which is set-up together with six Belgian universities with lecturers and practical training within the SCK•CEN premises. Invitation to... Besides inviting the reader to discover the 2005 edition of our scientific report, I warmly thank all those who made it possible. Pierre D'hondt Acting general manager www.sckcen.be Operational Office: Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol – Scientific Report 2005 SCK•CEN ORGANISATIONAL CHART Chairman of the Board Frank Deconinck Acting General Manager Pierre D'hondt Main project coordinators Current reactors Pierre D'hondt New reactor concepts Pierre D'hondt Fusion Marc Decréton Radioactive Waste Disposal Guy Collard Chemical technology Guy Collard Dismantling Guy Collard Biology and Environment Mark Loos Policy support Mark Loos Medical Applications Mark Loos Social Integration Gilbert Eggermont Counsellor of the Board Occupational Medicine Gilbert Eggermont Luc Holmstock Quality Assurance Health Physics & Safety Peter De Regge Department Contracts Frank Joppen Ludo Veuchelen Security HADES Scientific Coordinator Marc Buyens Frans Moons Projects auditor and specific international missions Arnold Bonne Radiation Reactor Radioactive Reactor BR2 Technical Personnel, Marketing & Protection Safety Waste & Services Finances & Public Relations CleanUp Administration Mark Pierre Guy Pol Jan Christian Jef Loos D'hondt Collard Gubel Van der Auwera Legrain Vanwildemeersch Safeguards & Reactor Physics Nuclear BR2 Operation Budget, Purchase Physics & MYRRHA Chemistry & Pol & Information Measurements Hamid Services Gubel systems Klaas Aït Abderrahim Leo Pierre van der Meer Sannen Reactor Van Doorslaer Reactor Experiments Lowlevel Materials Site Jean Radioactive Research Restoration Dekeyser Measurements Eric Luc Christian Van Walle Noynaert Hurtgen Instrumentation Waste & Radiation Francis Disposal Protection Berghmans Geert Research Volckaert Hans Vanmarcke R&D Valorisation Decision Jérôme Strategy Dadoumont a.i. Research Frank Hardeman FUSION: INTRODUCTION Marc Decréton The construction of ITER is starting in Cadarache The international nuclear fusion experiment ITER will be built in Cadarache, located in the south of France. This was decided in June 2005, following a ministerial meeting in Moscow, where the six ITERpartners – Europe, Japan, China, the Russian Federation, the USA, and South Korea – gathered to make the final choice between the Japanese site Rokkasho and the European site. The decision followed months of intense bilateral talks between the European Union and Japan, after the negotiations had been deadlocked for almost two years. This decision has made the fusion programme definitely change gear. The licensing activities have been launched and the international legal entity will be probably established at the end of the year. In the meantime, India is negotiating its participation, and with this enlargement of the consortium, the ITER partnership would become the largest scientific enterprise ever formed, grouping more than half the world population and three quarters of the world GDP. This is in phase with the ambition of the project: securing the world’s future needs for energy with a clean, safe and CO2free energy source and abundantly available fuel resources. And it is a key test case for largescale international cooperation in the area of science and technology. ITER is the main element of the present fusion roadmap. It will integrate the different technologies that have been developed up to now, and assess the control capability of a burning plasma device up to actual ignition. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at the level of an electricityproducing power station. Together with the breeding blanket programme, the material research and the IFMIF testing facility, it will lead the way towards the foreseen demonstration power plant (DEMO). Discussions are now ongoing on a fast track option to provide commercial electricity production at the mid of the century. The decision on ITER construction questions however the present organisation of the fusion programmes in Europe. It requires specific adaptation inside each associated partner, and SCK•CEN in particular, to evolve from a research driven activity towards a more industrial approach, and to orient the ongoing work into a real accompanying effort of the ITER initiative in the following decades. ITER in Europe will indeed foster a major participation of the European industry to its construction and operation. Due to the high technological content of part of these deliverables, it offers a unique way to build up advanced competencies in view of broader realisations for the future fusion prototype reactors. Research institutes working in fusion technology projects for several decades, such as SCK•CEN, have a key role in this coming industrial participation. This is particularly the case for the design and manufacturing of advanced systems and components and the testing of prototypes under representative environmental conditions, including radiation. The SCK•CEN involvement in fusion technology For several years, SCK•CEN articulates its fusion technology contribution towards a crucial question: "how do materials and equipment behave in severe radiation fields"? This involves materials for first wall, vessel assembly and blanket, but is also extended to the radiation hardness of instrumentation components used for diagnostics and remote maintenance. This main fusion involvement is complemented by specific studies on environmental issues, in particular related to waste management, and to a few socioeconomic aspects of future fusion energy production. To perform its work, SCK•CEN relies on its core competences and available facilities, usually originated from its main involvement in fission reactor technology: irradiation capabilities, research in radiation effects on materials and instrumentation, ongoing programmes in dismantling and waste disposal, and even its involvement in the design of an acceleratordriven spallationsource reactor. The fusion activities are driven by and put in synergy with these strong poles. The main goal of evaluating the effects of radiation on materials and instrumentation is tackled in a comprehensive way, taking full use of all available facilities: the BR2 materials testing reactor of course, but also a wide range of fully equipped hotcells, a variety of gamma sources, specialised laboratories for tritium and beryllium handling. www.sckcen.be Operational Office: Boeretang 200, B2400 Mol – Scientific Report 2005 The quality of this involvement is recognised by a coordination role