France-based nuclear start-up newcleo and the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have signed a collaboration agreement to test key structural and reactor core materials for newcleo’s planned lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology.
The partnership will leverage the expertise and experience of JAEA, making use of Joyo, a sodium-cooled fast reactor located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Using Joyo, newcleo and JAEA will conduct irradiation tests and post-irradiation examinations, supporting newcleo’s long-term nuclear fuel manufacturing strategy.
This agreement marks an important step in newcleo’s licensing and development roadmap. Access to real-world irradiation environments will provide critical data on core and structural materials performance under the specific characteristics of fast reactors. The results will support the deployment of newcleo’s LFR-AS-30 reactor and fuel manufacturing pilot line, the designs of which are currently in the licensing process in France.
The collaboration will also complement ongoing R&D activities at the ENEA Brasimone Research Centre (Bologna, Italy), where newcleo is testing material resistance to corrosion and erosion in lead-cooled systems.
“JAEA’s expertise is a global reference point in fast reactor technology, with a track record of operation and research dating back to 1977,” said newcleo CEO Stefano Buono. “Testing materials in an operational fast reactor is a unique opportunity that will provide us with invaluable data for the development and licensing of our LFRs, and for advancing next generation nuclear technology in general.”
JAEA President Masanori Koguchi said: “Through our collaboration, we hope to advance research and development in fast reactors and play a part in building a more sustainable society.”
Since its launch in 2021, newcleo has been very active in fundraising and signing partnership and collaboration agreements. Its business now counts over 90 partnerships, with more than 1,000 employees based in 19 locations across France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, and Slovakia, including three manufacturing facilities. Newcleo’s project in France in 2024 won a €20m grant from Bpifrance, the country’s public sector investment bank.
While the newcleo website includes a mock-up of the LFR reactor, it provides very little technical information about the reactor design. Currently, the only operating liquid metal-cooled fast reactors are in Russia, using sodium as the coolant. Russia is also constructing the world’s first ever lead-cooled SMR (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 supported by the entire Russian nuclear industry, is due to begin operation in 2029. By contrast, despite its rapid business expansion, newcleo’s technologies remain in the very early conceptual design stage.
