SCK

SCK (Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie) is the Belgian Nuclear Research institute situate in the city of Mol.

Contents

1 Organisation Profile
2 Safety of nuclear installations
3 Main research projects
4 New and social topics
5 Important installations
6 Nuclear analysis and chemical laboratories
7 External links

Organisation Profile

The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) is a Foundation of Public Utility (FBU), with a legal status according to private law, under the tutorial of the Belgian Federal Minister in charge of energy. SCK•CEN has about 600 employees, of which one third have academic degrees. The turn-over amounts to 80 M€ per year: 50% directly from a government grant, 10% indirectly via activities for the dismantling of declassified installations and 40% of the funding from contract work and services. SCK•CEN was created in 1952 in order to give the Belgian academic and industrial world access to the worldwide development of nuclear energy. Since 1991, the statutory mission gives the priority to research on problems of societal concern:

Safety of nuclear installations

Radiation protection
Safe treatment and disposal of radioactive waste
Fight against uncontrolled proliferation of fissile materials
Fight against terrorism.

This available know-how and infrastructure are also used for services to industry and for training.

Main research projects

Reactor and fuel safety
Optimization of reactor core configuration
Behaviour of high burn-up fuel and MOX fuel
Study on embrittlement of reactor pressure vessels and irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking of reactor internals
Effects of irradiation on instrumentation and structural materials among others for fusion reactors
Radioactive waste
Feasibility and safety of the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and of spent fuel in geological clay layers
Study, development and assessment of decommissioning techniques and processes for nuclear installations, including decontamination processes
Study and development of alternative waste treatment and minimization techniques and processes
Radiation protection
Biological effects of radiation on life and environment
Scientific backing of emergency planning and response;
Belgian contribution supporting the non-proliferation programme of the IAEA in Vienna
Scientific support to environmental impact assessments and the remediation of contaminated sites
Nuclear metrology
Optimization of exposures in the nuclear industry according to the ALARA principles
Optimization of medical exposures
Training and education
*Post-graduate nuclear engineering degree in collaboration with five Belgian universities.
*Moreover SCK•CEN co-ordinates the European network for nuclear education (ENEN) sponsored by the European Commission.
*Emergency response planning

New and social topics

SCK•CEN is developing the programme for integration of social aspects (PISA) in its nuclear research in the field of sustainable development, ethics, nuclear waste governance, risk perception, communication, safety culture and nuclear law in different nuclear developments
Research is being carried out on new radioisotopes and on the optimization of diagnosis and intervention techniques.
For the European Space Agency (ESA), SCK•CEN carries out research on the effect of exposure of instrumentation and living organisms to cosmic radiation.

Important installations

BR2: One of the most powerful research reactors in the world, BR2 is used for the testing of fuels and materials for different reactor types and for the European fusion programme. It is also a main instrument for the production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications and for silicon doping for the electronics industry.

BR1: BR1 is a 4 MWth graphite-moderated, air-cooled reactor. It is extensively used as a neutron source for activation analysis, dosimetry calibration, neutrography and reference reactor experiments.

VENUS: The VENUS zero-power critical facility allows the detailed analysis of core configurations, including MOX and high burn-up fuels. It is intensively used for the validation of reactor core configuration and criticality codes.

BR3: BR3 was a prototype of the pressurized water reactors (PWR's). It was selected as a European pilot project for the optimization of dismantling and decontamination techniques and processes, for the realistic assessment of costs, and for developing techniques for minimization of secondary waste and minimization of radiation doses to the personnel.

HADES: The underground laboratory HADES, at a depth of 225 m, allows the study of clay as potential geological host formation for long-lived and high-active nuclear waste. It is operated by the Economic Interest Grouping EURIDICE, a collaboration set up between NIRAS/ONDRAF (the Belgian radwaste agency) and SCK•CEN. Recently this underground laboratory has been substantially expanded in order to perform large-scale tests to demonstrate the feasibility and safety of the disposal of heat-generating nuclear waste.

LHMA: The Laboratory for High and Medium level Activity evaluates the effects of irradiation on materials at use in actual and future nuclear installations. A wide variety of mechanical, physico-chemical and microstructure research tools are available in and out of remotely-operated hot-cells. The laboratory is involved in applied and fundamental research supported by mathematical modelling to verify and predict the behaviour of the nuclear materials during service life.

Nuclear analysis and chemical laboratories

SCK•CEN measures and evaluates the internal contamination of employees and operators of the nuclear industry and the contamination of the territory and the food chain. Its laboratories also support the research reactors and other labs for destructive and non-destructive research on highly radioactive materials. These laboratories also support the nuclear emergency planning to which SCK•CEN supplies an important contribution for the Belgian and European policy.

MYRRHA: MYRRHA is an Accelerator Driven sub-critical System (ADS). It consists of a proton accelerator delivering a 350 MeV*5 mA proton beam to a liquid Pb-Bi spallation target in a Pb-Bi cooled, sub-critical fast core. MYRRHA will serve as a basis for the European experimental ADS. It will provide protons and neutrons for various R&D applications, among others transmutation studies.

External links

[www.sck.be]

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