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Document 52012DC0171
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010
/* COM/2012/0171 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010 /* COM/2012/0171 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE
COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the
year 2010 The Council adopted on 25 May 2009 a
three-year (2009-2011) supplementary research programme to be implemented by
the Joint Research Centre (JRC) concerning the operation of the High Flux
Reactor (HFR) located in Petten, The Netherlands. Article 4 of this Council
decision provides that the Commission will inform yearly the European
Parliament and the Council by producing a report on the implementation of the
supplementary research programme. This 2010 HFR activity report is the second
of three yearly reports that will cover the whole supplementary research
programme. The main objectives of the programme are
the following: (1)
To ensure the safe and reliable operation of the
HFR in order to guarantee the availability of the neutron flux for experimental
purposes. (2)
To allow an efficient use of the HFR by research
institutes in a broad range of disciplines: improvement of the safety of fuels
and materials for nuclear reactors of relevance for Europe, health including
the development of medical isotopes to answer questions of medical research,
nuclear fusion, fundamental research and training and waste management. The HFR acts as a training facility for doctoral
and post-doctoral fellows, allowing them to perform research activities through
national or European Programmes. The reactor is also used for the commercial
production of radio-isotopes which cover more than half of the 10 million
medical diagnoses executed each year in Europe. The safe operation and research objectives
were fulfilled as follows in 2010: 1. Safe Operation of the HFR The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)
is the owner of the plant (for a lease of 99 years) and the JRC the plant and
budget manager. The HFR reactor is operated by NRG (Nuclear Research and consultancy Group) which operates and maintains
the plant and manages the commercial activities around the reactor[1]. It has
an operating licence granted by the Dutch national regulator KFD (Kernfysische Dienst). As for nuclear
power plants, the HFR is subject to legally required 10-year periodic safety reviews
which are performed by NRG. The HFR has been also the subject of an independent
INSARR (Integrated Safety Assessment for Research
Reactors) review performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in April 2011. In 2010 the HFR was operational for only
143 days as it was shutdown for the extensive repair of the Bottom Plug Liner
(BPL). The preparation and implementation of the repair was monitored and
inspected by the Dutch nuclear safety regulatory authority in accordance with
the applicable national regulations and requirements. The reactor repair, inspection and testing lasted 201 days. The maintenance activities consisted of the
preventive, corrective and regular maintenance of all systems, structures and components
executed with the objective to enable the safe and reliable operation of the
HFR. Also the periodic leak test as one of the license requirements (0.2 bars
overpressure - 24 hours duration) and the extended in service inspection including
the measurements of the Bottom Plug Liner were successfully performed. No incident on the International Nuclear
Event Scale (INES) was reported. 2. Research and isotope production 2.1 Research The following ongoing scientific activities
were performed: ·
Managing NeT, the European Network on Neutron
Techniques Standardisation for Structural Integrity. The main experimental
activities in 2010 were relative to small angle scattering studies of materials
ageing processes; ·
Residual stress measurements by neutron
diffraction, assessing microstructure evolution in thermally aged strengthened
steels and investigating thermal acceleration of radioactive decay; ·
Fuel irradiation experiments relative to minor
actinide transmutation to reduce the radiotoxicity of nuclear waste; ·
Fuel irradiation experiments for investigating
fission-products retention capabilities; ·
Experiments to investigate reactor structural
material degradation under irradiation (graphites, composites, tungsten alloys
and steel); ·
Fusion reactor and accelerator driven system technology
concerning the irradiation and post irradiation examination of beryllium pebbles,
steels, and welds. 2.2 Isotope Production The year 2010 was unusual for the HFR regarding
medical radioisotopes production and can be divided in three periods: for the
first weeks of the year until mid-February the HFR continued to work at maximum
production capacity. Production was then stopped during the BPL repair period (at
a time of continuing international medical isotope shortage) and then restarted
with a normal operating pattern in September 2010. Until the HFR repair, the medical isotopes
production continued to be given the highest possible priority. The reactor
loading was tailored to ensure the absolute maximum production levels of key radiopharmaceuticals
and in particular the production of Molybdenum-99 for medical applications
(e.g. cancer treatments). This configuration allowed as many as 11 parallel Molybdenum-99
production irradiations to be performed. During this maximum capacity period, the
HFR production exceeded the radiochemical processing capacity available within
the European supply network. It was estimated that during this period the HFR
produced enough material to allow >50,000 patient scans per day to be
performed worldwide; this represents around 60% of the global demand. During the year 2010, the operator NRG coordinated
efforts to minimise the effects of the supply problems and kept the isotope
customers informed about the progress of the repair and the projected HFR
return to service date. The events also underlined the critical role of the HFR
in the supply chain of isotopes for medical services. 3. Financial
contributions for the execution of the programme. In 2010, the following financial
contributions were received from Member States for the execution of the
programme: Belgium: 400,000 €, France: 300,000 €, The Netherlands: 8,223,000 €. It should be noted that these contributions
cover the expenses according to Annex II to Council Decision 2009/410/Euratom.
These amounts have been calculated in order to balance the forecasted costs of
the reactor for the period 2010 taking into account an expected level of
commercial income. In no case does the Commission cover any operational
deficit, including potential costs for maintenance or repair. The
Commission received in 2010 from the supplementary programme
800,000 € as provisions for the Decommissioning fund. Other expenditures (e.g.
direct personnel, utilities, spent fuel management) for a total of 1,674,000 € incurred
by the Commission were also paid from the supplementary programme budget. An
accompanying Staff Working Paper presents in more
detail all the results of the operation of the HFR in 2010. [1] on
20 June 1967 the JRC and Stichting Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland, referred
to as “ECN”, (then called Stichting Reactor Centrum Nederland, referred to as “RCN”)
concluded a Co-operation Contract No. 054-68-1 PET N with regard to the
operational management of the HFR at the JRC's Site.