REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the years 2014-15
Date: 2018-02-27
Institutions: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Subjects: EU research policy, Netherlands, North Holland, nuclear reactor, nuclear research, nuclear safety, nuclear technology, research programme

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 27.2.2018  COM(2018) 76 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the years 2014-15 {SWD(2018) 46 final}  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

Operation of the High Flux Reactor in the years 2014-15 

On  13  November  2012,  the  Council  adopted  a  four-year  (2012-15)  supplementary  research 
programme  for  the  HFR1,  to  be  implemented  by  the  Joint  Research  Centre  (JRC)  on  the 
operation of the high flux reactor (HFR) located in Petten, The Netherlands. Under Article 4 
of  this  Council  Decision,  the  Commission  must  keep  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council  informed  by  producing  reporting  on  the  implementation  of  the  supplementary 
research  programme.  A  mid-term  report  has  already  addressed  the  2012-2013  period2.  and 
therefore this final report will address the remaining 2014-2015 period.  

In operation since 1961, the HFR reactor provides a variety of irradiation location possibilities 
(reactor core, reflector region and in the poolside). 

The main objectives of the supplementary research programme are: 

 

 

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  nuclear  reactors,  health  including  the 
development of medical isotopes, nuclear fusion, fundamental research and training, 
and waste management including the possibility to study the safety issues of nuclear 
fuels for reactor systems of interest to Europe. 

The HFR is used for the commercial production of radio-isotopes and also acts as a training 
facility  for  doctoral  and  post-doctoral  fellows,  allowing  them  to  perform  research  activities 
through national or European programmes. 

1. Safe operation of the HFR 

The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) is the owner of the HFR (for a lease of 
99  years).  The  HFR  reactor  is  operated  by  the  NRG  (Nuclear  Research  and  Consultancy 
Group)  which  operates  and  maintains  the  plant  and  manages  the  commercial  activities 
around the reactor. 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 the NRG. 

The 2014-15 period was characterised by one safety-related event (second half of 2015) that 
affected the availability of the neutron flux. 

After  an  unplanned  shutdown  period  of  about  4  months,  the  HFR  returned  to  service  in 
February  2014.  The  cycle  pattern  consisted  of  a  scheduled  number  of  216  operation  days, 
scheduled  4-day  reactor  stops  and  a  longer  shutdown  period  of  65  days  in  October  and 

1 
COUNCIL DECISION of 13 November 2012 on the adoption of the 2012-2015 High Flux Reactor 
supplementary research programme to be implemented by the Joint Research Centre for the European Atomic 
Energy Community, Council Decision 2012/709/Euratom. 
2 
the High Flux Reactor in the period 2012-2013,   COM(2016)170 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Operation of 

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November 2014. This corresponds to an actual availability of almost 100% with reference to 
the original scheduled operation plan. Nominal power in this period has been 45 MW. 

The HFR was scheduled to operate for 9 cycles in 2015, with 271 planned full power days but 
only 230 were realized. The main cause for the lost full power days was the cancellation of 
cycle 2015-08 in October 2015. This cycle was skipped because of a deviation in the control 
rod  system  performance.  Inspection  and  analyses  revealed  a  marginal  play  in  one  of  the 
reactor  control  rods  used  to  adjust  the  reactor  power.  While  this  play  did  not  affect  the 
functionality of the control rod nor reactor safety in any way, a new procedure for assembly, 
commissioning and maintenance/inspection of the control rods was developed preventively to 
avoid such effects in the future. This was then included in the safety case which was evaluated 
by  the  Reactor  Safety  Committee  and  by  the  Autoriteit  Nucleaire  Veiligheid  en 
Stralingsbescherming  (ANVS)  -  the  Dutch  nuclear  regulator.  The  ANVS  provided  a  formal 
statement of no objection to reactor restart. The HFR was safely restarted in December 2015. 
In  close  cooperation  with  rivet  experts  and  after  a  technical  visit  to  the  SAFARI  reactor  in 
South  Africa  (of  which  the  control  rods  have  a  similar  design)  it  was  also  decided  to  also 
improve the structural design of the control rod. The new design will make  use  of  different 
rivets  to  improve  the  safety  margin.  Next  to  that,  also  the  control  rod  guide  seats  will  be 
improved by making use of another bearing material. Implementation of these modifications 
will be implemented in between 2018 and 2019. 

Nominal power in this period has been 45 MW. 

During the reporting period (2014-2015), the annual 30 MW reactor training for the operators 
and the yearly flux measurements have been carried out as scheduled. 

In  2014  and  2015,  maintenance  activities  consisted  of  the  preventive,  corrective  and 
breakdown  maintenance  of  all  systems,  structures  and  components  (SSC)  of  the  HFR,  as 
described in the annual and long-term maintenance plans. These activities were carried out to 
ensure the HFR’s safe and reliable operation and to prevent inadvertent shutdowns caused by 
insufficient maintenance. The following activities were successfully completed: 

 

 

 

 

 

Scheduled regular preventive and corrective maintenance; 

Periodic leak testing of the containment building (0.02 MPa overpressure for 24h) as 
one of the license requirements;  

In-Service  Inspection  of  the  safety  relevant  parts  of  the  primary  system  (reactor 
vessel, the outlet reducers, the bottom plug and primary piping in the Primary Pump 
Building); 

Cleaning of the secondary cooling system; 

Revision of the emergency power diesels 

2. Research and isotope production 

2.1 Research 

The  following  scientific  activities  were  performed  in  the  period  2014-15  (many  were  a 
continuation from the 2012-13 period): 

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 

 

 

 

 

nuclear fuel irradiation experiments investigating the reduction of the radiotoxicity of 
nuclear waste; minor actinide transmutation technological issues (i.e. fission products 
retention capabilities, dust-free process, helium swelling); 

nuclear  fuel  (e.g.  for  High  Temperature  Reactors  and  Molten  Salt  Reactors)  and 
graphite qualification for high-temperature reactors (; 

experiments investigating the nuclear reactor’s structural material degradation under 
irradiation (graphites, model steels, welds, etc.); 

fusion reactor technology used in the irradiation and post-irradiation examination of 
material  planned  to  be  used  in  ITER’s  (International  Thermonuclear  Experimental 
Reactor) shielding blanket; 

standardisation  of  materials  (e.g.  neutron  diffraction  method  for  residual  stress 
measurement in thick bi-metallic welds; residual stress measurements). 

2.2 Isotope production 

Worldwide,  approximately  25.000  patients  per  day  depend  on  medical  radio-isotopes 
produced in the HFR in Petten for diagnosis and therapy. 

isotopes 

to  mainly 

these  medical 

NRG  delivers 
radio-pharmaceutical  companies. 
Molybdenum-99  is  by  far  the  most  important  of  these  isotopes.  It  is  a  precursor  of 
Technetium-99m  which  represents  the  most  widely  used  medical  isotope  for  imaging, 
accounting  for  80%  of  all  nuclear  diagnostic  procedures.  It  performs  a  critical  role  in  the 
diagnosis of heart disease, and is also used in cancer diagnosis through bone and organ scans. 
In  addition,  new  treatment  methods  are  being  developed  thus  leading  to  ever  increasing 
demand for (new) isotopes. Given the half-life of the produced isotopes and the high demand 
for treatment, a well-oiled just-in-time logistic infrastructure is essential. 

The  Dutch  expertise  from  NRG,  URENCO  (a  nuclear  fuel  company  operating  several 
uranium  enrichment  plants)  and  TU  Delft  (Technical  University  of  Delft)  in  the  area  of 
medical radioisotopes has been recently bundled into the association "Dutch Isotope Valley" 
(DIVA) where  knowledge, skills, capacity and alternative production methods for (medical) 
isotopes have attained sufficient weight to serve the world market. Considering that the NRU 
reactor  at  Chalk  River,  Canada  will  stop  routine  production  of  Mo-99  and  is  planned  to  be 
shut  down  in  2018  and  that  Canada  will  concentrate  on  domestic  demand  as  opposed  to 
export, this represents an excellent opportunity for DIVA to fill the production gap. 

In order to carry out the asset integrity program which is a prerequisite to run the HFR and its 
ancillary installations until 2024, the Dutch government has granted NRG a loan (through its 
parent company ECN). In parallel, NRG has successfully increased prices for its entire service 
package  and  these  were  accepted  by  all  customers.  In  particular,  NRG's  top  6  isotope 
customers  have  expressed  their  confidence  in  NRG  through  signing  long-term  supply 
agreements. This was a successful step into the direction of financial robustness and viability. 

The  HFR  restarted  its  operation  on  14  February  2014  and  has  performed  its  production 
schedule as planned during the rest of that year. The HFR was thus back on the international 
scene as one of the major producers of medical isotopes worldwide. In 2015, the HFR missed 
one production cycle in October but could be restarted in December 2015. 

3. Financial contributions to the programme’s implementation 

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In 2014-15, the following financial contributions were received from Member States for the 
implementation of the supplementary programme: 

 

 

 

Belgium: EUR 300 000 (2014) + EUR 300 000 (2015) 

France: EUR 300 000 (2014) + EUR 300 000 (2015) 

The Netherlands: EUR 7 250 000 (2014) + EUR 7 250 000 (2015), 

for a total of EUR 15 700 000. These contributions cover the expenses specified under Annex 
II  of  Council  Decision  2012/709/Euratom.  The  European  Commission  does  not  cover  any 
operational  deficits,  including  potential  costs  of  maintenance  or  repair.  Financing  for  the 
decommissioning fund and other expenditure linked to the Commission’s management of the 
supplementary research programme originates from this amount. 

Since 2004, due to a re-evaluation of decommissioning costs, the annual contribution of the 
supplementary programme to the decommissioning fund increased from EUR 400 000/year to 
EUR  800 000/year.  This  amount  is  taken  from  (a)  the  regular  budget  of  the  supplementary 
research programme, and (b) the interest earned on the bank account of the decommissioning 
fund of the supplementary research programme. For example, in  2014 the estimated amount 
of interest generated by the decommissioning fund was EUR 145 000. Therefore, only EUR 
655 000 was added from the regular supplementary research programme budget to reach the 
EUR 800 000/year. The total amount in the decommissioning fund is EUR 17 239 000. This 
fund  will  contribute  to  the  future  decommissioning  costs  of  the  HFR  (to  be  borne  by 
Euratom), estimated at EUR 72 600 000 in the most recent decommissioning study available3.  

Other expenditure incurred by the JRC during the reporting period and paid directly from the 
supplementary research programme budget includes: 

 

 

 

 

direct  staff  costs  (e.g.  HFR  supplementary  research  program  management):  EUR 
257 000 

HFR support costs (e.g. legal advice): EUR 166 000 

utilities (e.g. electricity, water, heating): EUR 1040 000 

spent fuel management costs: EUR 2 450 000 

An  accompanying  staff  working  document  presents  the  technical  results  of  the  HFR’s 
operation in 2014-15 in more detail. 

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on 

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Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and Management of Radioactive Waste: Management of Nuclear 
Liabilities arising out of the Activities of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) carried out under the Euratom Treaty 
— COM(2013) 734 final. 

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