Safety of operating nuclear power plants and research reactors
Closed
Status as published by the data source.
Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:
• Make substantial progress in implementing, on the part of licence holders and regulators, the requirements of the Nuclear Safety Directive[1], Basic Safety Standards Directive[2] and Radioactive Waste Management Directive[3], and topical peer reviews[4] for the current and planned nuclear power plants and research reactors.
• Develop and/or deploy solutions for ageing management and/or the evaluation of reactors’ safety margins using, where appropriate, cross-cutting technologies like digitalisation, modelling and simulation.
• Further develop and validate advanced structural integrity assessment methods and evaluate defect tolerance and safety margins in aged and potentially degraded plants.
• Quantify the safety margin in state-of-the-art integrity assessment methodologies on key nuclear components under real loading conditions.
• Draw up best practice guidance for developed assessment methods, disseminate the project outputs, and provide appropriate training in the use of developed assessment methods.
• Establish, for example through regular exchanges with regulatory bodies and/or their technical support organisations, a shared and coherent approach among regulators to safety requirements for different nuclear technologies, further improving safety across the Community.
• Develop competences and ensure continuity in short- to long-term research. This will allow some Member States to contribute to the decarbonisation of energy production according to and respecting the EU technology neutrality principle and thus increase Member State and EU energy security. Scope:Euratom research will be driven by the increasing importance of long-term operation (LTO), and the fact that the current and planned innovative fleet will consist mainly of Light Water-cooled Reactors.
Proposals should address challenges related to ageing management and/or the evaluation of safety margins of the reactors’ fleet. Such challenges relate, among other things, to the development of methods and tools to increase safety, the availability of systems, structures and components needed for reliable and safe management, core physics and thermal hydraulics, monitoring, digital including artificial intelligence, internet of things and digital twins, modelling and simulation, as well as prevention and mitigation strategies for long-term operation.
Adequate safety margins, the early detection of degradation and prevention of failures in pressure boundary components is of high priority to ensure the important third physical barrier in light water reactors. During the long operating life of nuclear power plants (40-80 years), the steel pressure boundary components are subjected to threats from non-linear processes such as ageing, different degradation mechanisms and load history effects. This highlights the importance of research activities to ensure proper analysis of damage tolerance, degradation, loads and safety margins, and to ensure appropriate programmes for inspections, repairs and the replacement of components.
[1] Council Directive 2009/71/Euratom of 25 June 2009 establishing a Community framework for the nuclear safety of nuclear installations (OJ L 219, 25.7.2014, p. 42) as amended by Council Directive 2014/87/Euratom of 8 July 2014.
[2] Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5 December 2013 laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation, and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom OJ L13, 17.1.2014, pp. 1-73.
[3] Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom of 19 July 2011 on establishing a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, OJ L199, 2.8.2011, pp. 48-56.
[4] https://www.ensreg.eu/
- Status
- Closed
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €20,000,000
- Grant range
- €5,000,000 – €5,000,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Euratom Research and Training Programme (EURATOM)
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
Other calls under Euratom Research and Training Programme (EURATOM)
- Key enabling technologies for fusion power plants (European Partnership on Fusion Energy)
- Key enabling technologies for fusion power plants (European Partnership on Fusion Energy)
- European Partnership for research in radiation protection and detection of ionising radiation
- Safety of SMRs, advanced and innovative nuclear reactors and fuels
- Safety of operating nuclear power plants and research reactors
- Co-funded European partnership for research in nuclear materials
- Support for the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform to address cross-sectoral challenges and non-power applications of ionising radiation
- Strengthening a European user facility for nuclear research
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- Safety of SMRs, advanced and innovative nuclear reactors and fuels
- Strengthening a European user facility for nuclear research
- Safety of advanced and innovative nuclear designs
- Cost-effective sustainable technologies and crisis management strategies for RN large-scale protection of population and infrastructures after a nuclear blast or nuclear facility incident
- Innovative technologies for safety and excellence in decommissioning, including robotics and artificial intelligence
- Harnessing innovation in nuclear science, technology and radiation protection
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-euratom-2023-nrt-01-01.json
- Document fingerprint
bac82cb17f433dc9(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Retrieved
- First recorded here
What has changed
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- deadline first recorded as 2023-11-08 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2023-04-04 on
- published_on first recorded as 2023-03-17 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as closed on
- title first recorded as Safety of operating nuclear power plants and research reactors on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved from the source on .
The source last updated this document on Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:56:47 GMT.
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