The importance of low carbon energy sources in the efforts against rapid climate change makes nuclear energy part of a sustainable energy mix. Although there have been years of experience feedback with water cooled reactors, fundamental improvement, particularly regarding intrinsic safety and reduced nuclear waste generation is possible using advanced nuclear designs. Heavy metal cooled systems such as the lead fast reactor (LFR) combine the advantages of a fast reactor system that reduces waste with the intrinsic safety related properties such as the high boiling point, chemical inertia and improved heat transfer. ANSELMUS responds to the Horizon-Euratom -2021-NRT-01-02 call ?Safety of advanced and innovative nuclear designs and fuels. Its objective is to contribute significantly to the safety assessment of heavy-liquid-metal (HLM) systems, in particular ALFRED and MYRRHA as these are included in the roadmap for the development of advanced systems in Europe. It will use the maturity of both designs to create two detailed phenomena identification and ranking tables (PIRT) that identify all verification and validation needs and are used for further safety evaluation. The project will also experimentally validate key safety related sub-systems including the safety rods, failed fuel pin detection and the coolant chemistry control system. We also will improve the validation of numerical models describing the fuel assembly through experiments and simulations and work on reactor safety monitoring and inspection of HLM systems focusing on high temperature vessel inspection. Moreover, ANSELMUS will look into the societal impact of HLM reactors by assessing the integration of LFR in a mixed energy landscape, including economical aspects, and by addressing social and ethical considerations of advanced nuclear technologies. Finally, a dedicated effort will be put into education and dissemination towards all stakeholders including policy makers and the general public.

The CLEANDEM project, with its collaboration of 11 partners from 4 EU countries, proposes a technological breakthrough associated to various dismantling and decommissioning (D&D) operational steps with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Platform. The CLEANDEM strategy will be based on innovative detection technology systems that will constitute a toolbox for equipping an intelligent robotic platform for fully remote operations. The pre-identified technologies are low-cost sensThe CLEANDEM project, with its collaboration of 11 partners from 4 different EU countries, proposes a technological breakthrough for dismantling and decommissioning (D&D) operations of nuclear sites, employing an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Platform equipped with innovative radiological sensing probes. The aim of the project is to deliver a cyber physical system which will support the end-users’ operations, initially performing a radiological assessment of the area and then monitoring D&D operations throughout the final characterization of the plant. This will result in a 3D and fully detailed digital twin of the surveyed area augmented with radiological information provided by the sensors, thus enabling an efficient and effective planning of the dismantling actions and optimizing the nuclear waste sorting for reprocessing or for delivery to the final storage. Targeted impacts of the UGV Platform are to: save time, drastically reduce costs, minimize human intervention, improve workers and population safety and be greener; all of those driving the project execution to match the stakeholders’ expectation. The effectiveness of the UGV Platform will be assessed in an extensive testing and validation campaign that will be performed in laboratories, in simulated environment and finally on the field. A demonstration event in a real nuclear site, involving all project partners and external stakeholders, will conclude the three years project activities opening for further exploitation in the D&D market.