Gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) is considered as one of the six most promising advanced nuclear reactor technologies, supported worldwide by the Generation IV International Forum and ESNII in Europe. It excels in versatility, combining very high core outlet temperatures and the possibility to close the fuel cycle, allowing for very efficient and sustainable electricity and industrial heat production. The SafeG proposal presents a Research and Innovation action aiming at connecting developers of the ALLEGRO reactor (V4G4) with European and international experts having experience in GFR and HTR research, who will utilize their unique expertise, knowledge and experience, bringing fresh ideas to the GFR development to the SafeG project will bring the GFR research and development in Europe a major step forward. It is divided into 7 Work Packages, four of them dealing with open research and development problems of GFRs, namely the core safety and proliferation resistance (WP1), advanced materials and technologies (WP2), decay heat removal (WP3), standardization and codes (WP4). Additionally, a major part of the effort (15 % of the total budget) will be dedicated to education and training activities sheltered by WP5. Dissemination and outreach activities are included in WP6 while WP7 ensures smooth management and execution of the project. The main objectives of the SafeG project are: - To strengthen safety of the GFR demonstrator ALLEGRO - To review the GFR reference options in materials and technologies - To adapt GFR safety to changing needs in electricity production worldwide with increased and decentralized portion of nuclear electricity by study of various fuel cycles and their suitability from the safety and proliferation resistance points of view - To bring in students and young professionals, boosting interest in GFR research - To deepen the collaboration with international non-EU research teams, and relevant European and international bodies

The CORTEX project aims at developing an innovative core monitoring technique that allows detecting anomalies in nuclear reactors, such as excessive vibrations of core internals, flow blockage, coolant inlet perturbations, etc. The technique will be based on primarily using the inherent fluctuations in neutron flux recorded by in-core and ex-core instrumentation, from which the anomalies will be differentiated depending on their type, location and characteristics. The method is non-intrusive and does not require any external perturbation of the system. The project will result in a deepened understanding of the physical processes involved. This will allow utilities to detect operational problems at a very early stage and to take proper actions before such problems have any adverse effect on plant safety and reliability. With an ageing fleet of nuclear reactors utilizing more challenging fuel assembly designs, core loadings, and operating more often in load-follow, new operational problems have been observed during the last decade and will become more frequent in the future. By making the detection and characterization of anomalies possible, the availability of nuclear-generated electricity will be further improved. This will contribute to a lowering of the CO2 footprint to the environment and to a higher availability of cheap base-load electricity to the consumers. By implementing the technique in the existing fleet of reactors, the technique will have a major impact. Moreover, the technique, being generic in nature, can be applied to future reactor types and designs. In order to develop a method that can reach a high Technology Readiness Level, the consortium was strategically structured around the required core expertise from all the necessary actors of the nuclear industry, both within Europe and outside. The broad expertise of the consortium members ensures the successful development of new in-situ monitoring techniques.

The Fukushima Daiichi event has demonstrated the need for improved nuclear energy safety, which can be ensured by the development of accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). ATFs are expected to overcome the inherent technical shortcomings of the standard zircaloy/UO2 fuels, thus relieving the industry from the huge financial penalty associated with beyond-design-basis accidents leading to fuel cladding material failure and release of radioactive fission products to the power plant containment and the environment. The main objective of IL TROVATORE is to identify the best candidate ATF cladding materials for use in Gen-II and Gen-III/III+ LWRs and to validate them in an industrially-relevant environment, i.e., under neutron irradiation in PWR-like water. Ideally, fuel cladding materials must demonstrate leak tightness and containment of fuel pellets and fission products during the fuel residence in the reactor, even under transient/accidental operation conditions. The innovative ATF cladding material concepts proposed in IL TROVATORE are expected to demonstrate significant improvement in performance when compared to the current fuel cladding materials, thus helping to take a critical step towards an improved energy safety worldwide, in response to the requirements of the amended Nuclear Safety Directive. The development of ATF clads will eliminate redundant safety systems, improving the market profile of current reactor designs, and the overall envisaged innovation will strengthen the competitiveness of European industries in both nuclear and non-nuclear sectors. To achieve its ambitious objectives, IL TROVATORE relies on academic excellence and industrial support, while also involving standardization bodies and nuclear safety regulatory authorities to accelerate the transfer of key innovation to market. Since IL TROVATORE is put forth to address a pressing global challenge, it is presented as an international collaboration between Europe, the USA and Japan.