Nuclear: agreement between Eagles and newcleo for 'Leandrea' prototype reactor development

The Eagles consortium (Ansaldo Nucleare, Enea, Sck Cen, Raten) and newcleo have signed a collaboration agreement for the construction of 'Leandrea', a prototype reactor to be built by 2034 at the Belgian research institute Sck Cen. The Eagles consortium and newcleo will work in synergy to make the development of lead-cooled fast reactor technology in Europe more efficient by contributing to the design and construction of Leandrea developed both as a technology demonstrator and as a materials and fuel test facility.

As soon as it is operational, Leandrea will enable the testing of new materials and fuels for fast reactors, thus supporting the Eagles and newcleo roadmaps of their respective projects. In particular, Eagles is adopting a phased approach with the Leandrea technology demonstrator to be built in Mol, Belgium, to be followed by the Alfred performance demonstrator in Romania, which will pave the way for the commercialisation of the Eagles-300 reactor in 2039.

Newcleo, on the other hand, is developing its own Lfr reactor design with commercialisation planned for the early 2030s. "This collaboration will strengthen the competitiveness of the European nuclear industry, enabling it to advance rapidly and compete in the global race towards a new era of nuclear energy development," said Stefano Buono, ceo of newcleo.

Leandrea will be realised as Belgian research infrastructure at the site of Sck Cen, which - as a partner of Eagles - will operate the plant. The design is based on already verified technologies, so that the available knowledge can be quickly converted into concrete results and its realisation is guaranteed by 2034. For the development and realisation of Leandrea, Eagles and newcleo will share both engineering support and project promotion activities as equal partners. This collaboration reinforces the feasibility of commercialising the Eagles-300 and newcleo's Lfras200, both of which were selected among the most robust projects by the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs.

Collaboration is the principle at the heart of the Eagles consortium, which brings together industrial and technological expertise from Belgium, Italia and Romania to develop and implement Eagles-300, a 300 MWe lead-cooled Fast Modular Reactor. By combining industrial know-how, infrastructure and expertise, combined with more than 20 years of experience in liquid metals, the consortium aims at the commercial application of reliable nuclear technologies and scientific-technological progress.