As Europe powers towards a greener future, an EU-wide initiative on nuclear materials research and innovation could unlock safer, more efficient, and sustainable nuclear energy, solidifying its place in the green transition. 

Brussels, 12 April 2023 – The ORIENT-NM (Organization of the European Research Community on Nuclear Materials) project, a Euratom-funded Coordination and Support Action (CSA) that laid the foundations for developing a co-funded European partnership (CEP) on nuclear materials, has concluded its work. The project was instrumental in raising interest among stakeholders and demonstrating the value of a coordinated and ambitious research and innovation EU-wide partnership to accelerate the design, manufacturing, and qualification of innovative nuclear materials.

In the context of the clean energy transition and Europe’s climate neutrality objectives, nuclear energy has a critical role to play as the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon energy. Nuclear materials represent a key element for nuclear energy’s safety, efficiency, economy, and sustainability. Hence, ORIENT-NM achieved consensus for establishing an ambitious and coordinated research and innovation EU-wide partnership that catalyses EU Member States’ national resources towards commonly defined objectives is remarkable.

Over the course of 30 months, ORIENT-NM worked closely with key actors from the nuclear energy R&D field and policymakers from the European Commission and Member States. To accomplish the task, member states representatives were engaged in a two-way dialogue to collect information on national programmes, define contents and priorities, analyse their interest in a future CEP in nuclear materials, and provide information such as socio-economic benefits and financial aspects, among others. Additionally, the project’s analysis of the national energy and climate plans (NECPS) suggested that nuclear power will be expanded in Europe from now to 2040 via long-term operation, power upgrades, new low-water reactor buildings and next generation systems (i.e., small modular reactors and fourth generation -Gen-IV- systems).

ORIENT-NM’s main milestones included the development of a Vision Paper and a Strategic Research Agenda for structural and fuel materials for all nuclear fission reactor generations until 2040. Additionally, the partnership envisaged by ORIENT-NM put forward five research lines transversal to the different classes of nuclear materials, significantly impacting the safety and efficiency of current and future nuclear power plants.

The scientists who spearheaded ORIENT-NM are now preparing a CEP proposal in response to the nuclear materials call finally included in the Euratom programme 2023-2025. If approved, the fifteen years horizon of the partnership activities will be aimed at creating sufficiently strong foundations to enable the application of the approaches defined during ORIENT-NM for the benefit of the nuclear energy field.

“We believe that a European coalition of workforce, skills and funds in the nuclear materials field could represent the strong point of the path toward final sustainable energy solutions. In this way, the future co-funded European partnership in nuclear materials, as envisaged by the ORIENT-NM project, will represent an added value for the European objectives on carbon neutrality and energy independence. We look forward to continuing our efforts and the close work with key stakeholders across Europe to achieve our shared goals of safety, efficiency, and sustainability in the nuclear energy sector.” – Lorenzo Malerba, coordinator of the ORIENT-NM project.

LINK