France launches $10M project to assess safety of next-generation nuclear reactors

France has opened a new nuclear research facility at Cadarache to test passive safety systems for advanced reactors, including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). The center will examine their performance under normal and abnormal operating conditions and during nuclear accidents. The Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection, ASNR) announced the facility’s opening on November 9, 2026.

The research is being conducted under the PASTIS project, which focuses on residual heat removal in light water reactors during unexpected operating conditions and accidents. The systems under investigation rely on natural processes such as convection and condensation, requiring minimal external intervention. The French government has allocated approximately USD 10 million (EUR 9 million) through its France 2030 program to support the project. The funding will help researchers generate experimental data for evaluating passive safety systems and improving nuclear safety assessments.

PASTIS builds on research conducted by the former Institute for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (IRSN) in 2016. That work examined the reliability of passive safety mechanisms and identified the need for additional experiments under different operating conditions.

ALCINA and KoKoMo platforms begin testing

The Cadarache facility houses two modular experimental platforms for studying thermal-hydraulic processes. ALCINA is a thermal-hydraulic loop designed to measure pressure losses in pipes of different sizes and under varying operating conditions. It will examine single-phase and two-phase flows using forced convection with a pump and natural circulation. KoKoMo is a containment enclosure equipped with a cold-wall condenser to study condensation on internal surfaces. Researchers will investigate how condensation interacts with temperature stratification inside the enclosure. The platform will also test an SMR containment concept in which the reactor building is submerged in a water reservoir during an accident.

Experimental findings will support improvements to France’s nuclear simulation tools, including CATHARE for normal and incidental operating conditions and ASTEC for severe nuclear accident analysis. ASNR said: “The knowledge acquired will be capitalized in particular in the numerical simulation tools used in France (CATHARE for normal and incidental operation and ASTEC for severe accident situations), through specific developments.” The authority added that new experiments would investigate physical processes that remain insufficiently understood. The research will follow a generic scientific approach independent of specific reactor designs or components, as industrial concepts are not yet fully established.

International research cooperation

ASNR plans to share PASTIS findings with national and international research organizations. Current collaborations include EDF R&D teams and international partners participating in the European Union-funded Euratom program, particularly the EASI-SMR project.

ASNR said the research would support knowledge sharing and cooperation with other expert and research organizations, with partnerships already established at national and international levels.

Sébastien Desmarest, PASTIS Project Manager, highlighted the importance of government funding in establishing the facility. “State support within the framework of France 2030 was crucial in bringing PASTIS to fruition,” he said. “This investment now allows us to have a unique research platform, designed to produce the scientific knowledge that safety expertise will need in the decades to come.”

Source: https://interestingengineering.com/military/france-cadarache-nuclear-facility-reactor-safety