INNO4GRAPH is a 3-year European collaborative Research and Innovation project focusing on the decommissioning of graphite moderated nuclear reactors.
The decommissioning of shut down graphite moderated nuclear reactors worldwide is still in its early stages with the majority of reactors in “safe store” condition. For these reactors, there are still considerable industrial and technical challenges that remain to be tackled, even after more than 30 years of operational shutdown of the first unit.
One of the main reasons why decommissioning of graphite moderated nuclear facilities remains a considerable industrial and technical challenge is the dimension and the complex geometry of such reactors.
A second major challenge is related to the cost. EDF estimates that the dismantling of its 9 graphite reactors would cost around 3 Billion euros.
Hence, there is a need to assess and secure different decommissioning scenarios, associated schedules and costs as well as to develop innovative methods and tools. The mission of the INNO4GRAPH project is to gather the main European graphite operators to work together on replying to that need. To do this, the consortium has received 3,011,061€ of funding from the Horizon 2020 Euratom Research and Training Programme of the European Union.