2024-02-28 07:30:40
The challenge of the start-up Newcleo is to develop, build and operate innovative fourth-generation fast neutron reactors, using lead as a heat transfer fluid.
Winner of the call for projects “Innovative nuclear reactors”, Newcleo wants, through the development of an innovative fast neutron reactor, to implement a technology making it possible to close the nuclear fuel cycle and optimize use. Resource.
Ludovic Vandendriesche, general manager of Newcleo SA, answered questions from Techniques de l’Ingénieur.
Engineering Techniques: Can you go back to the genesis of Newcleo?
Ludovic Vandendriesche : Newcleo was co-founded in September 2021 by our CEO Stefano Buono – previously founder of Advanced Accelerator Application, a biotech listed on Nasdaq and sold to Novartis – Elisabeth Rizzotti, a physicist by training and Director of Operations, and our Chief Scientific Officer Luciano Cinotti, a A globally recognized expert in fast reactor technology, he is the author of most of the patents related to lead fast reactors (Lead Fast Reactor – LFR) in the world.
Since our founding, we have raised €400 million in private capital and have a €1 billion fundraising in progress. In May 2023, Newcleo announced an investment of €3 billion in France by 2030, to build a demonstration reactor and a pilot fuel manufacturing unit. Our reactor concept is the winner of the call for projects “ Innovative nuclear reactors » of the France 2030 investment plan. Newcleo is today a European company with more than 600 employees, present in Italy, France and England. With research and development centers in Italy, the United Kingdom and France, as well as an experimental center at ENEA-Brasimone, international collaboration is part of our DNA.
How do the lead-cooled fast reactors that you are developing and which use recycled fuel work?
We have made it our mission to bring safe, economical and sustainable energy to the world, by combining existing technologies in a radically innovative way. Our lead-cooled reactors operate at atmospheric pressure. The properties of lead (thermal capacity, boiling point, chemical and shielding properties), combined with Newcleo’s passive safety systems, guarantee a very high level of safety. Our fast reactors are capable of efficiently “burning” (or fissioning) plutonium, minor actinides and depleted uranium. Powered by fuel from the reprocessing of recoverable nuclear materials, they not only provide a sustainable approach by closing the fuel cycle, but also contribute to strengthening French and European energy independence. The Newcleo offer is based on demonstrated and unique industrial experience in France: large-scale reprocessing of nuclear materials, and the development of fourth generation fast reactors such as Phénix and Superphénix.
What are the technological and industrial obstacles that you must remove?
Newcleo aims to build a 30 MWe LFR (Lead Fast Reactor) demonstrator in France in 2030, associating it with the pilot fuel manufacturing installation. To keep its commitments, it is urgent that the State takes a decision on the allocation of sites for new innovative reactors. It is necessary that these decisions be taken no later than the second quarter of 2024, with forecast indications hoped for from the Nuclear Policy Council in February so as not to block the design studies in progress.
By the end of the year, we are also aiming to finalize the basic design of our LFR and our MOX RNR production unit, and we are taking parallel action to secure our supply chain with key suppliers. Our strategic partnerships with eminent players such as the CEA, Framatome, Assystem, Ingérop, or Onet Technologies, strengthen our technical skills and demonstrate our commitment to excellence in French nuclear engineering. At the start of 2024, we enthusiastically announced our strategic and industrial partnership with NAAREA, marking a crucial milestone. This collaboration aims to pool our efforts as winners of the France 2030 “Innovative Nuclear Reactors” call for projects, thus accelerating innovation in the field of fourth generation nuclear power. Together, we aspire to become more efficient and strengthen our impact, in particular vis-à-vis public authorities at European level. We look forward to seeing the fruits of these collaborations materialize in the next phase of our development.
Who are your competitors in this technology (lead-cooled fast reactor), in France and internationally?
Several projects for small reactors (SMR – Small Modular Reactor) and 4th generation reactors (AMR – Advanced Modular Reactor) are underway around the world, particularly in France and elsewhere in Europe, the United States and China. . SMR/AMR all bring something different that will allow them to play an important role in meeting our energy needs. There is plenty of space in the market, we are not competing with each other. This is partly because these technologies open up a variety of opportunities beyond powering the grid. Together, these technologies have the potential to decarbonize heating, power energy parks, provide integrated production with micro-reactors… Our mission is to work alongside others to contribute to global decarbonization, this is not just something something that can be done alone.
What is the typology of industrial customers for the AMRs that you are developing?
Demand for electricity will double or even triple in Europe by 2050. SMRs offer carbon-free, reliable, controllable electricity, with flexibility that large power plants do not have: they can be built quickly and can be assembled in groups according to the desired power. Ours can be used to produce hydrogen and other sustainable fuels, for cogeneration or to replace polluting coal or gas power plants.
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