nucleareurope and IAEA co-organise joint event on nuclear supply chain
From 10 to 12 December 2024, nucleareurope co-organised in Vienna the 18th edition of its joint event with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), focused on the topic of the development of a sustainable nuclear supply chain for near deployment reactors.
As part of the opening session, nucleareurope Director general Yves Desbazeille highlighted the need to further the development of a sustainable nuclear supply chain, in light of global objectives to increase nuclear capacity.
“Nuclear development and innovation is gathering pace at a global level, it is essential that we work towards a sustainable and resilient nuclear supply chain for existing reactors and new nuclear” said Yves, adding that the development of a European nuclear supply chain would be instrumental to reach the objective of 150GW of nuclear installed capacity in Europe by 2050.
In the afternoon, nucleareurope Policy Director Andrei Goicea moderated a panel discussion on supply chains for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which focused on upcoming changes in the SMR supply chain. The session allowed to identify key challenges and success factors and to discuss recent evolutions in the field, such as the creation of the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs, which includes a Technical Working Group specifically focused on the supply chain.
On the second day of the event, nucleareurope Technology Advisor Guilherme Cardoso moderated a session on standards development organisations. Panellists discussed recent developments as well as avenues towards standards harmonisation. They further highlighted the importance of collaboration in the development of nuclear standards.
Concluding the three day event, Andrei Goicea intervened in panel session on international challenges and initiatives to ensure sustainable new build. He detailed current European cooperation initiatives to support a resilient supply chain for nuclear new build, whether it be for large reactors, Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs), or SMRs.
Andrei then participated in the event’s closing session, which allowed to summarise the key takeaways from the meeting and detail future collaboration opportunities between international stakeholders. He insisted on the benefits of European cooperation on supply chain issues, and called for a policy framework which supports the development of a sustainable nuclear supply chain.