Image: Chalmers
Christian Ekberg, coordinator of the Asgard project.
Chalmers. With a 9.4 million euro budget, a group of European researchers are aiming to produce safe nuclear fuel that can be 80 percent recycled, compared to the current 1 percent. Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg is in charge of the initiative.
According to Chalmers, fourth generationnuclear power systems can lead to a reduction of the amount of high-level, long-lived nuclear waste to a tenth of what it is today, while energy output can increase hundredfold.
Christian Ekberg, professor and nuclear chemistry research team leader at Chalmers, says that the technology for the fourth generation systems exists already. What is needed now is for the different parts to be connected.
Christian Ekberg is coordinating the new project called Asgard. Around 50 European researchers will take part in the project over four years.
"Traditionally, three different groups have worked separately on the fourth generation nuclear power systems: reactor physicists, fuel chemists and separation chemists. The groups will cooperate within the Asgard project to tie their previous findings together," says Christian Ekberg in a press release.
"We will also perform research on entirely new reactor fuels that are safer, use resources more effectively and that enable a more comprehensive approach to the waste issue."
