The ATHENA facility, Analyses Tritium Hydrolyse EMECC & Na, created on April 11, 2022, is home to the Laboratory for Contamination Control, Heat Transfer Fluid Chemistry and Tritium (LMCT). The LMCT deploys its expertise in all aspects of primary-cycle heat transfer chemistry. Whether it's corrosion modeling, contamination modeling, material studies, in situ instrumentation development or analytical expertise, the LMCT can provide technical support for water reactors, fusion reactors or molten salts.
The LMCT is organized into specialty sub-groups. The OSCAR/EMECC group is dedicated to the simulation and study of primary circuit contamination, while the metallography, thermochemistry, physico-chemical analysis and tritium groups carry out studies in support of current and future nuclear systems.
The main missions of the LMCT are :
- Monitoring contamination in PWR circuits (EMECC)
- development of the OSCAR calculation code for all reactor generations (fission and fusion),
- Development of the DIADEM calculation code for the DIAgnostic des Défauts d'Etanchéité à l'aide de la Mesure applicable to pressurized water reactors,
- Support for R&D programs through a range of physico-chemical and radiochemical analysis services,
- Expertise in materials chemistry for new-generation reactors,
- Process engineering for tritium recovery.