Launched in June 2017, GENIORS is a new project funded by the European Commission to contribute to improving multi-recycling of radioactive waste. GENIORS stands for ‘GEN IV integrated oxide fuel recycling strategies’, and focuses on the 4th generation of nuclear reactors, expected by 2030 and equipped with more sustainable technologies.
From 2017 to 2021, scientific research will be led principally on the ‘closed fuel cycle’, a nuclear chain which involves giving a second life to spent fuel, mostly composed of uranium and plutonium waste. If the volume and radiotoxicity of waste can be reduced, less uranium would be mined, and thus reducing the environmental impact of the nuclear industry.
Beyond developing scientific knowledge and expertise on the nuclear fuel recycling, results generated by GENIORS may open new relevant European policies on energetic independence and economic competitiveness.
Coordinated by Stéphane Bourg, from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), GENIORS gathers 24 partners: 10 nuclear research centres, 10 universities, two nuclear operators, one SME’s and one technical safety organisation.
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