The Radiation Protection, Environmental Protection and Civil Protection Laboratory (LRPMPC) of RATEN ICN is member of IAEA Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity (ALMERA) Network since 2005 and is participating annually in environmental radioactivity proficiency tests organized by the Network. Recently, the RATEN ICN LRPMPC infrastructure was modernized, and now includes laboratory spaces equipped with systems that allow staff to carry out their activities in optimal conditions.

In many countries, the safety of the low and intermediate level waste disposal facilities relies mainly on engineered barriers. As in Europe near-surface disposal facilities are at different stages of implementation and few of them are in operation, one of the WPs of the European Partnership on Radioactive Waste Management (EURAD-2), co-financed by the European Commission, focuses on a better understanding of the behaviour of engineered barriers of these facilities in view of their optimization.

In the context of the energy transition, there is a progressive reduction in the electricity produced from fossil fuels. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the energy transition, an assessment of the sustainability performance was conducted in frame of ECOSENS project, comparatively, encompassing the key energy technologies driving this transition—namely, intermittent renewables (wind and solar), nuclear, hydropower, and natural gas.
 

Joint ICTP-IAEA INPRO School aims to provide knowledge and basic practical experience by training on INPRO concept of nuclear energy sustainability, INPRO tools and methods on assessment and analysis of nuclear energy systems. Last Joint ICTP-IAEA INPRO School was held in 12-16 June 2023, at the ICTP’s headquarters, Trieste (Italy).

To ensure the structural integrity of components which are on use in nuclear installations, it is necessary to know their resistance to the initiation and propagation of cracks. Because of their dimensions it is a quite demanding task to prepare the standard fracture mechanics specimens for a classical ASTM test. All the above-mentioned led to the need of introducing a new method for assessing the fracture material properties of tubes with thin walls, called Pin-Loading Test (PLT).

Advanced concepts of CANDU fuel bundles with more than 37 elements are analyzed comparatively to the 37-rods standard fuel bundle design from the safety performance point of view.

RATEN ICN was designated as IAEA International Centre based on Research Reactors for the “Education and Training” and for “Joint Research and Development (R&D) Projects” fields, joining the Network of other 6 well-known institutes from the USA, France, Belgium, Korea and Russia.

The Advanced Thermo-Hydraulics Experiment for Nuclear Application (ATHENA) facility will be built at Mioveni platform, on the RATEN-ICN research center premises. 

ALFRED infrastructure was designed as a Research Infrastructure of global relevance on the HLM and LFR technology.

Different concepts for nuclear heavy water reactors fuel bundles were compared and analysed from the thermo-mechanical point of view by using specific computer codes.