The ARCADIA Project in Support of the ALFRED Concept

The FP7 Euratom project ARCADIA (Assessment of Regional CApabilities for new reactors Development through an Integrated Approach), launched in November 2013, has the aim to assess the regional capabilities of the EU New Member States (NMS) to effectively contribute in bringing closer the European research to ESNII (European Sustainable Nuclear Industrial Initiative) and NUGENIA (NUclearGEneration II&III Association) objectives. In particular, for the ESNII, the project will work in support to the ALFRED concept towards its realization in Romania, and for NUGENIA it will approach safety aspects of Gen III/III+.The project focuses on the identification of the primary needs for the ALFRED project, mainly to what concerns engineering and technology, supporting infrastructures, competences and regulatory aspects. At the same time, it investigates the existing national and regional supporting structures — with a particular attention to the ones in Romania and in all the participating NMS — for defining a map of competences potentially eligible to satisfy the identified needs. Since the most of the existing competences and experiences rely on present generation systems, the review will also provide a frame for potential support to NUGENIA on Gen III/III+ systems, as well as the starting point for building the Gen IV culture and future capabilities.On the other hand, ARCADIA takes the profit of the large participation to the project itself to carry out an advising activity to the ALFRED Consortium (FALCON), addressing recommendations regarding the national and international best practices and guidelines for the advancement of the ALFRED project.Investigation of the existing Research Reactors, among the Project Partner, for their potential involvement in future (potential) experimental activities in support of both the ALFRED project realization and the Gen III/III+ safety activities will be also considered. Networking, Cooperation and Dissemination activities are also included in the project in order to provide the connection with the international scientific community, with the European institutional organizations and with the general public. This work gives an overview of the project objectives, structure and contents, with focus on the international effort towards the GenIV.Copyright © 2014 by ASME