The European Commission plays an important role in shaping European energy policies and providing science-based results as generated by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). At JRC nuclear research is performed in all relevant key areas including nuclear waste transmutation. In this seminar current research programs and preliminary results of minor Actinides bearing fuels and their
claddings will be addressed in terms of design requirements, basic properties assessment and validation. The importance, status and future perspectives of irradiation facilities to investigate appropriate boundary conditions as defined by the requirements are also included. Finally, societal impacts on nuclear energy research, an aspect that is becoming more and more important in the European will be discussed as an outcome of a specific study performed.
Concetta Fazio is deputy Head of the Nuclear Fuel Safety Unit of the European Commission JRC. After getting her PhD in Metallurgical Engineering at the Politecnico of Turin, she has started her research work at the Italian Research Centre ENEA on materials studies for fusion devices, accelerator driven systems and concentrated solar power. Successively, she moved to the German Research Institution KIT, where she was in charge both of the “Partitioning and Transmutation” and “Safety of New Nuclear Systems” programs. At JRC after a first period spent on defining Nuclear Education and Training programs for MSc and PhD students and professional development, she became scientific assistant to the director of the JRC directorate on nuclear safety and security.
