REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010
Date: 2012-04-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Belgium, France, Joint Research Centre, Member States' contribution, Netherlands, energy research, nuclear reactor, nuclear safety

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 16.4.2012  
COM(2012) 171 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010 

{SWD(2012) 86 final} 

 
 
 
 
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the year 2010 

The  Council  adopted  on  25  May  2009  a  three-year  (2009-2011)  supplementary  research 
programme to be implemented by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) concerning the operation 
of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) located in Petten, The Netherlands. Article 4 of this Council 
decision  provides  that  the  Commission  will  inform  yearly  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council  by  producing  a  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  supplementary  research 
programme. This 2010 HFR activity report is the second of three yearly reports that will cover 
the whole supplementary research programme. 

The main objectives of the programme are the following: 

(1) 

(2) 

To  ensure  the  safe  and  reliable  operation  of  the  HFR  in  order  to  guarantee  the 
availability of the neutron flux for experimental purposes.  

To  allow  an  efficient  use  of  the  HFR  by  research  institutes  in  a  broad  range  of 
disciplines:  improvement  of  the  safety  of  fuels  and  materials  for  nuclear  reactors  of 
relevance for Europe, health including the development of medical isotopes to answer 
questions of medical research, nuclear fusion, fundamental research and training and 
waste management. 

The HFR acts as a training facility for doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, allowing  them to 
perform research activities through national or European Programmes. 

The  reactor  is  also  used  for  the  commercial  production  of  radio-isotopes  which  cover  more 
than half of the 10 million medical diagnoses executed each year in Europe. 

The safe operation and research objectives were fulfilled as follows in 2010: 

1. Safe Operation of the HFR 

The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) is the owner of the plant (for a lease of 
99 years) and the JRC the plant and budget manager. The HFR reactor is operated by NRG 
(Nuclear  Research  and  consultancy  Group)  which  operates  and  maintains  the  plant  and 
manages the commercial activities around the reactor1. It has an operating licence granted by 
the  Dutch  national  regulator  KFD  (Kernfysische  Dienst).  As  for  nuclear  power  plants,  the 
HFR  is  subject  to  legally  required  10-year  periodic  safety  reviews  which  are  performed  by 
NRG.  The  HFR  has  been  also  the  subject  of  an  independent  INSARR  (Integrated  Safety 
Assessment  for  Research  Reactors)  review  performed  by  the  International  Atomic  Energy 
Agency (IAEA) in April 2011.  

1 

on 20 June 1967 the JRC and Stichting Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland, referred to as 
“ECN”, (then called Stichting Reactor Centrum Nederland, referred to as “RCN”) concluded a 
Co-operation Contract No. 054-68-1 PET N with regard to the operational management of the 
HFR at the JRC's Site. 

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In  2010  the  HFR  was  operational  for  only  143  days  as  it  was  shutdown  for  the  extensive 
repair of the Bottom Plug Liner (BPL). The preparation and implementation of the repair was 
monitored and inspected by the Dutch nuclear safety regulatory authority in accordance with 
the applicable national regulations and requirements. The reactor repair, inspection and testing 
lasted 201 days. 

The maintenance activities consisted of the preventive, corrective and regular maintenance of 
all  systems,  structures  and  components  executed  with  the  objective  to  enable  the  safe  and 
reliable operation of the HFR. Also the periodic leak test as one of the license requirements 
(0.2 bars overpressure - 24 hours duration) and the extended in service inspection including 
the measurements of the Bottom Plug Liner were successfully performed.  

No incident on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) was reported. 

2. Research and isotope production 

2.1 Research 

The following ongoing scientific activities were performed: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Managing  NeT,  the  European  Network  on  Neutron  Techniques  Standardisation  for 
Structural Integrity. The main experimental activities in 2010 were relative to small 
angle scattering studies of materials ageing processes; 

Residual  stress  measurements  by  neutron  diffraction,  assessing  microstructure 
evolution 
thermal 
acceleration of radioactive decay; 

thermally  aged  strengthened  steels  and 

investigating 

in 

Fuel  irradiation  experiments  relative  to  minor  actinide  transmutation  to  reduce  the 
radiotoxicity of nuclear waste; 

Fuel irradiation experiments for investigating fission-products retention capabilities; 

Experiments  to  investigate  reactor  structural  material  degradation  under  irradiation 
(graphites, composites, tungsten alloys and steel); 

Fusion  reactor  and  accelerator  driven  system  technology  concerning  the  irradiation 
and post irradiation examination of beryllium pebbles, steels, and welds. 

2.2 Isotope Production 

The year 2010 was unusual for the HFR regarding medical radioisotopes production and can 
be  divided  in  three  periods:  for  the  first  weeks  of  the  year  until  mid-February  the  HFR 
continued to work at maximum production capacity. Production was then stopped during the 
BPL  repair  period  (at  a  time  of  continuing  international  medical  isotope  shortage)  and  then 
restarted with a normal operating pattern in September 2010. 

Until  the  HFR  repair,  the  medical  isotopes  production  continued  to  be  given  the  highest 
possible priority. The reactor loading was tailored to ensure the absolute maximum production 
levels  of  key  radiopharmaceuticals  and  in  particular  the  production  of  Molybdenum-99  for 
medical  applications  (e.g.  cancer  treatments).  This  configuration  allowed  as  many  as  11 
parallel  Molybdenum-99  production  irradiations  to  be  performed.  During  this  maximum 

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capacity  period,  the  HFR  production  exceeded  the  radiochemical  processing  capacity 
available  within  the  European  supply  network.  It  was  estimated  that  during  this  period  the 
HFR  produced  enough  material  to  allow  >50,000  patient  scans  per  day  to  be  performed 
worldwide; this represents around 60% of the global demand.  

During  the  year  2010,  the  operator  NRG  coordinated  efforts  to  minimise  the  effects  of  the 
supply problems and kept the isotope customers informed about the progress of the repair and 
the  projected  HFR  return  to  service  date.  The  events  also  underlined  the  critical  role  of  the 
HFR in the supply chain of isotopes for medical services. 

3. Financial contributions for the execution of the programme. 

In  2010,  the  following  financial  contributions  were  received  from  Member  States  for  the 
execution  of  the  programme:  Belgium:  400,000  €,  France:  300,000  €,  The  Netherlands: 
8,223,000 €. 

It  should  be  noted  that  these  contributions  cover  the  expenses  according  to  Annex  II  to 
Council Decision 2009/410/Euratom. These amounts have been calculated in order to balance 
the forecasted costs of the reactor for the period 2010 taking into account an expected level of 
commercial income. In no case does the Commission cover any operational deficit, including 
potential costs for maintenance or repair. 

The  Commission  received  in  2010  from  the  supplementary  programme  800,000  €  as 
provisions for the Decommissioning fund. Other expenditures (e.g. direct personnel, utilities, 
spent fuel management) for a total of 1,674,000 €  incurred by the Commission were also paid 
from the supplementary programme budget. 

An accompanying Staff Working Paper presents in more detail all the results of the operation 
of the HFR in 2010. 

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