The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) extend their cooperation agreement

SCK•CEN and its Japanese counterpart, JAEA, recently agreed to continue to work together in close cooperation for the next five years on a number of specific nuclear research projects. A collaboration agreement confirming this was signed on 4 January 2012, in the presence of H.E. the Ambassador of Japan in Belgium, Mr. Jun Yokota.

SCK•CEN has been working closely for many years with its Japanese colleagues. In 2006, an initial formal cooperation agreement was signed and that agreement has now been formally extended for a further 5 years. JAEA and SCK•CEN will work intensively together in the three following fields of research. Firstly, they will continue to collaborate on accelerator driven systems ADS, an area in which both parties have been actively involved for some time. SCK•CEN has been carrying out ADS research within the framework of the MYRRHA project and now JAEA and SCK•CEN will pool their resources to work on the design of ADS installations. The other fields of cooperation covered by the agreement are research into materials testing and the use of lead-bismuth for cooling research reactors.

Furthermore, SCK•CEN and JAEA have decided in the future to use their research reactors for common projects. The main focus here is on the implementation of advanced materials testing, such as the MIKADO project, in which the properties of reactor materials are tested. In addition to carrying on with a number of existing projects, new programmes have also been set up involving SCK•CEN's Belgian reactor 2 (BR2) and Japanese research reactors.

From left to right: Professor Eric van Walle, Director-General of SCK-CEN; H.E. the Ambassador of Japan in Belgium, Mr. Jun Yokota; Professor Frank Deconinck, Chairman of the Board of Governors of SCK-CEN

Finally, close collaboration will also continue on the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear installations. Thanks to the experience it has gained with the dismantling of the BR3 reactor in Mol, SCK-CEN has acquired unique expertise in this area.

FOR more information is available on the SCK-CEN website at: www.sckcen.be