Innovative reactor developer Newcleo has acquired a site in Chusclan in the Gard department in southern France on which it will construct an R&D innovation and training center supporting the development of its future fuel assembly manufacturing facility in France.

Newcleo said the Fuel process Assembly Storage Training and Enhanced Reality (FASTER) center will play a key role in its strategy to close the nuclear fuel cycle “while safely producing clean, affordable, and sustainable energy, essential for low-carbon economies”. The center will not store or handle any radioactive materials.

FASTER will host: dedicated spaces for testing engineering solutions and maintenance; advanced training facilities, including rooms equipped for virtual and augmented reality, simulators, and a training workshop with real production equipment; and development and qualification workshops designed to test and optimize manufacturing processes using cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D printing, within a high-tech environment dedicated to innovation and precision engineering. The FASTER center will be developed in collaboration with leading Italian design company Pininfarina.

Newcleo said, “By combining technological innovation with an advanced aesthetic approach, the site will provide an optimized workspace that fosters learning and research in an immersive and functional environment – illustrating how nuclear energy can drive sustainability, support net-zero goals, and secure a safe, abundant, and virtually inexhaustible energy source”.

Stefano Buono is the founder and CEO of Newcleo. He said, “The acquisition of this site marks a key milestone in our strategic roadmap. This innovation and training center, designed with Pininfarina’s renowned elegance and functionality in mind, will play a crucial role in preparing and anticipating the operations of our future pilot fuel manufacturing line … as a first structuring step, it will also support the successful deployment of our pilot line at another site in France.”

Newcleo intends to invest directly in a mixed uranium/plutonium oxide (MOX) plant to fuel its small modular lead-cooled fast reactors. In June 2022, the company announced that it had contracted France’s Orano for feasibility studies on the creation of a MOX production plant.

In December last year, Newcleo submitted its Safety Option File to France’s Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ASNR) for its fuel assembly testing facility. The ASNR ‘s official opinion on the submitted safety options will contribute to securing the application for authorization to construct such a facility.

According to Paris-headquartered Newcleo’s delivery roadmap, the first non-nuclear pre-cursor prototype version of its reactor is expected to be ready by 2026 in Italy. The first reactor is scheduled to be operational in France by the end of 2031. The final investment decision for the first commercial Newcleo power plant is expected around 2029.

Newcleo said its first-of-a-kind thirty megawatts lead-cooled fast reactor will “serve as an industrial demonstrator, a showcase for Newcleo’s technology, and contribute to the development of the nuclear sector in France”.

Last month, Newcleo announced that it had started the land acquisition process for its demonstration LFR-AS-30 small modular reactor in Indre-et-Loire in the Chinon Vienne et Loire community of municipalities in western France.