The European Commission recently announced the results of its 2016-2017 call for proposals for Euratom Fission programme, the second such programme to be launched within Horizon 2020 (H20201). Of the 38 projects that CEA submitted, 21 were selected for an expected EU contribution of €10.9 M towards these projects, the total cost of which is estimated at €87.5 M.
1 Horizon 2020 is the European Union's research and innovation funding programme for 2014-2020. It is the successor to the Seventh Framework Programme, with a broader scope (including Euratom, the framework programme for competitiveness and innovation, and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology).
CEA will not only be involved in 21 new research projects with dozens of European research partners, but will also coordinate six of these projects. Overall, they illustrate CEA's wide range of skills and expertise with regard to nuclear energy, as all of the operational divisions at CEA (except Military Applications) and INSTN took part in these projects.
EU research on nuclear fission is focused on safety and security, radiation protection, waste management and industrial use of radiation, but not only with respect to nuclear power reactors. It also involves many other fields of use of nuclear energy, such as using radiation in agriculture or medical research.
The selected projects submitted by CEA will mainly pertain to fission (for example, with R&D on the safety and maintenance of nuclear systems, developing radioactive waste management solutions, managing experimental reactor availability in Europe, and developing nuclear skills and competence in Europe), but will also involve fusion with the development of combined fission-fusion actions in areas such as radiotoxicity and dosimetry.
Nuclear energy in the EU research programmes:
The Eighth Framework Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community for nuclear research and training activities (Euratom FP) coordinates Member States' research programmes for the peaceful civil use of nuclear energy from fission and fusion, and is an integral part of H2020. The second Euratom Fission call for proposals, which opened on 11 May 2016 and closed 5 October 2016, had a funding budget of €105 M, with an intent to increase support for R&D relating to safety, which had a funding budget of €55.5 M.