Four European nuclear technology organisations have established the Eagles Consortium with the aim of developing and commercialising EAGLES-300, a next-generation lead-cooled small modular reactor (SMR). The consortium comprises Belgium’s SCK-CEN nuclear research centre; Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy & Sustainable Economic Development ENEA; Italian company Ansaldo Nucleare; and Romanian Atomic Energy Technology Company RATEN (Regia Autonoma Tehnologii pentru Energia Nucleara).
The agreement strengthens collaboration among consortium members Focused on Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology, with the aim of delivering its first demonstrator by 2035 and developing the EAGLES-300 SMR by 2039.
The signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the European Energy Council, in the presence of Belgian Minister of Energy Mathieu Bihet, Italian Minister of the Environment & Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Italian Ambassador to Luxembourg Carmine Robustelli, Romanian Secretary of State at the Ministry of Energy Cristian Bușoi, and Romanian Ambassador to Luxembourg Alexandrina-Livia Rusu.
Key features of EAGLES-300 include:
- High power output and grid flexibility with around 350MWe power, also suitable for industrial heat supply and hydrogen production.
- Modular design enabling lower construction investment, faster construction and flexible deployment.
- Optimised fuel management through the use of mox fuel including recycled materials, reducing radioactive waste and enhancing sustainability.
The consortium will leverage two key test facilities:
- Mol in Belgium where the LEANDREA technology demonstrator will focus on fuel and materials testing.
- Pitești in Romania where the ALFRED project will be upgraded to serve as a stepping stone toward commercial deployment.
“This consortium brings together extensive expertise, advanced test facilities, and complementary competencies from all the partners,” said Daniela Gentile, Ansaldo Nucleare CEO. “By working together within a structured European project, we are creating the conditions to turn innovation into a viable solution for the market. EAGLES-300 is a clear example of how coordinated industrial and research efforts can shape the future of nuclear technology with the goal to deliver a fully commercial LFR by 2039, reinforcing Europe’s leadership in next-generation nuclear energy.”
Giorgio Graditi, ENEA Director General, said the consortium capitalises on more than 30 years of expertise in lead cooling technology and engineering of its members “as a pole of attraction on the LFR technology, extending further the strategic and scientific collaboration in the field”.
Catalin Marian Ducu, RATEN Director General believes the consortium will provide a strong impetus for the development of advanced SMRs and “marks an important step toward building a robust and sustainable process for the deployment of LFR SMRs”.
According to Peter Baeten, SCK CEN Director General: “By uniting the strengths of four leading European partners, we bring a wealth of complementary expertise to the table. For SCK CEN, that means contributing our deep experience in reactor design, pre-licensing and heavy metal liquid technology. It’s a technological milestone for Europe – and a strategic step forward for Belgium.”
EAGLES-300 is a lead-cooled Generation IV small modular reactor (SMR). In 2024, the design – then referred to as the EU-SMR-LFR – was one of two lead-cooled fast reactor proposals selected by the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors, a European Commission initiative to facilitate and accelerate the development, demonstration, and deployment of the first SMR projects in Europe in the early 2030s.
LFR development in Europe has a complex history. Ansaldo Nucleare coordinated Euratom’s project ELSY (European Lead cooled SYstem) from its start in 2006. The goal was to develop an innovative pre-conceptual design of an industrial lead-cooled fast reactor for electricity production based on a closed fuel cycle. Following ELSY’s completion (2010), in the frame of EU 7th framework programme, Ansaldo became the leading organisation and coordinator of the LEADER project (Lead-cooled European Advanced DEmonstration Reactor). This aimed to develop a conceptual design of a Lead Fast Reactor Industrial size plant (the European LFR – ELFR) and of a scaled demonstrator of the LFR technology called ALFRED (Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator).
In 2019, Romanian utility Nuclearelectrica signed a MOU with the Fostering ALfred CONstruction (FALCON) consortium for cooperation on ALFRED, planned for construction in Romania. FALCON had been established in 2013, comprising ENEA and Ansaldo Nucleare, as well as Romania’s RATEN-ICN, and later CV-Rez. In 2017, the consortium members renewed the arrangement, reaffirming their objectives.
A 300 MWt demonstration ALFRED unit is expected to be built at RATEN-ICN’s facility in Mioveni, near Pitesti in Romania, where a fuel manufacturing plant supplies fuel for Romania’s Cernavoda NPP. ALFRED is to prepare the way for a 300-400 MWe industrial demonstration unit, featuring passive safety systems, which will use mixed-oxide (mox) fuel and operate at temperatures of around 550°C. The total cost of the project was estimated at some €1.0bn.
Ansaldo Nucleare led the conceptual design of ALFRED as part of the seventh Euratom framework programme. ENEA was responsible for the core design, technological development and safety analyses. The reactor was being developed through the European Sustainable Nuclear Industrial Initiative (ESNII), as part of the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan. ESNII was set up under the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform, formed in 2007.
In 2021, a consortium comprising Ansaldo Nucleare and Reinvent Energy (Romania) was awarded a €20m contract for the design, procurement, installation and commissioning of the Advanced Thermo-Hydraulics Experiment for Nuclear Application (ATHENA) experimental plant – a research facility for the development of lead-cooled reactors. ATHENA is planned to be built at RATEN-ICN’s Pitesti research centre and will include a 2.21 MWt pool-type plant housing 880 tonnes of liquid lead in a main vessel (3m in diameter by 10m in height). This facility will also house scale components for testing and demonstration of technology for LFR reactors.
The consortium is supported by ENEA and Italian engineering company SRS for the conceptual and executive design of the technological part, as well as by Romania’s Ispe and Somet (for the design of civil works and installation. The project involves the construction of an electrical core simulator, a main pump and a heat exchanger similar to the arrangement of the ALFRED system.
In 2022, the Belgian government entrusted the task of identifying innovative SMRs to SCK CEN, as well as the search for suitable partners to develop lead-cooled fast SMRs. The collaboration outlined a way forward, based on a gradual approach through demonstration phases. This will start with a small reactor to demonstrate the technological and engineering aspects of commercial SMR-LFR at SCK CEN’s Mol site in Belgium by 2035-2040.
In the meantime, the group will work towards the construction of ALFRED in Pitești, focusing on the technical and economic feasibility of future commercial SMRs. This will exploit and expand the work done in the last 10 years to achieve this goal by Ansaldo Nucleare, ENEA and RATEN within the FALCON consortium.
In October 2022, Westinghouse and Ansaldo Nucleare signed a cooperation agreement to develop a next-generation NPP based on LFR technology. The two companies will advance a common design to maximise synergies, combine experience in design, testing and licensing, and align respective partner and supply chain organisations. Westinghouse said the agreement builds upon development activities already underway in the UK, USA, Italy, and Romania, where more than ten state-of-the-art, lead-based test facilities are being installed.
In May 2023, Ansaldo Nucleare and Westinghouse said initial testing had been completed for their LFR design at the Passive Heat Removal Facility recently built at the Ansaldo Nuclear plant in Wolverhampton (UK). The work was performed under a contract within Phase 2 of the Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) programme partially funded by the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Under this contract, Ansaldo Nucleare led the design, purchase, installation and commissioning of two experimental facilities -the Versatile Loop Facility (VLF) and the Passive Heat Removal Facility (PHRF), which will collect experimental data supporting accelerated development of LFR technology. This will enable Westinghouse to test the feasibility of key LFR materials, systems and components.
Currently all these projects are in the conceptual and design stages with testing only taking place on non-nuclear components. To date, the only operating liquid metal-cooled fast reactors are in Russia, using sodium as the coolant. Russia is also constructing the world’s first lead-cooled small modular reactor (Brest-OD-300) in Seversk as part of a facility to demonstrate an on-site closed fuel cycle. This reactor, based on decades of complex research and development, and supported by the entire Russian nuclear industry, is due to begin operation in 2029. It remains to be seen whether the 2039 deadline for the EAGLES-300 can be met.
