A consortium has been formally set up for the construction of a demonstration lead-cooled fast reactor in Romania. The Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator -Alfred - is being developed under an EU initiative.
A memorandum of cooperation has been signed between the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment - ENEA - and Ansaldo Nucleare, as well as Romanian Nuclear Research Institute - Institutul de Cercetari Nucleare, ICN, to implement construction of Alfred. The signing ceremony in Bucharest was attended by Romanian energy minister Constantin Nita and representatives from the three partners organizations.
The group is to be known as the Fostering Alfred Construction - Falcon- consortium, which will be expanded through the participation of further undisclosed European organizations which have been said to have already expressed their interest. Additional partners will be needed to raise the necessary resources to finalize the design and technology phase of the project. The consortium aims to obtain finance for the reactor through EU funds allocated to R and D infrastructure in new member states administered by the European Investment Bank. The total cost of the project is put at some 1.0 billion euros (1.4 billion dollars).
The demonstration Alfred unit will be built at the ICN facility in Mioveni, near Pitesti in southern Romania, where a fuel manufacturing plant is in operation for the countrys two operating Candu reactors - of Canadian design. Construction could begin in 2017 and the unit could start operating in 2025. It will supply 120 MWe to the Romanian electrical grid.
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