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~Launch a Collaboration with National Nuclear Laboratory of the UK on R&D for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Technologies

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Towards Advancement and International Standardization of Japan’s High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Technologies
~Launch a Collaboration with National Nuclear Laboratory of the UK on R&D for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Technologies

  • In the UK, the commercialization of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR), a kind of the advanced modular reactor (AMR), has attracted much attention.
  • In July 2019, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of the UK signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on Clean Energy Innovation, including encouraging cooperation in the development and deployment of new types of reactors, including HTGR.
  • In June 2020, the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board (NIRAB) of the UK, issued its report on nuclear energy policy, “Achieving Net Zero: The role of Nuclear Energy in Decarbonisation”. The report highlighted HTGR as an important technology for future development and suggested international cooperation between the UK and JAEA to help accelerate the commercialization of these reactor concepts in the UK.
  • In July 2020, BEIS announced the selection of the three companies to advance from Phase 1 (Feasibility Study) to Phase 2 (Development) of the AMR Feasibility and Development Project (AMR Project) in the UK. U-Battery, a developer of HTGR, was selected as one of the three companies. JAEA has concluded a MOC with URENCO, the parent company of U-Battery, since 2017 for cooperation in the field of HTGR technologies.
  • Under these backgrounds, in order to support the governmental efforts concerning HTGR development, JAEA and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) of the UK agreed to amend the existing technical cooperation arrangement between JAEA and NNL to add a new item of the HTGR technology fields.
  • Through the cooperation with NNL, JAEA will strengthen the cooperation between Japan and the UK for the commercialization of HTGR and promote the advancement and the international standardization of Japan’s HTGR technologies, which has been developed through the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR).
  • We will cooperate to have an implementing arrangement in order to promote our concrete joint research projects as the next step.

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