PROCHEM a member of a Team for high-temperature nuclear reactors.

On July 20, 2016 was held its inaugural meeting and the nomination of experts, who will belong to the team. Appointment of the team means also the moment of commencement of works in relation to a first so significant program of research on new nuclear power technologies since the Polish political transformation. Thus it puts our country among the countries implementing the most advanced nuclear technologies. Members of the Team are experienced experts in their respective fields from such institutions as the National Center for Nuclear Research, PROCHEM S.A. (represented by Marek Tarka), or Energoprojekt-Warszawa S.A.
Task of the team is to present recommendations concerning the most effective method of use of the possibilities of native science and business in this project, and the analysis of the market potential of the implementation of this technology, production and sales.

Ministry of Energy has undertaken a decision on starting of a project concerning assessment of the potential of HTR upon considering the opportunities offered by this technology, and in particular its tremendous value for industrial applications of a cogeneration nature. The HTR works at very high temperature of 500-1000 ^oC, allowing you to use it mainly as a source of industrial heat. In the future it will allow for a large reduction of imports of natural gas used as the heat source in the chemical industry.
The interest in the Polish project have already expressed British companies and French government agencies, and in the world already was created a few research reactors in the HTR technology, which are cooled by the helium gas.

The aim of the Polish project is the implementation of such reactors as a source of heat for industry. At the same time, however, we want to lead research on the solutions, which are even more innovative. That’s how the effective cooperation between science and industry should look: large investments in proven technologies should result in the implementation of the pilot new technologies and in the promotion of the research work concerning future technologies – explains the Team Leader, professor Grzegorz Wrochna from the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ).

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Nuclear high-temperature reactors are ranked among the so-called reactors of Generation IV. Work on these structures are carried out, among others, in the United States, France, Japan, China and South Korea. Unlike the light-water reactors, which are commonly used in power engineering, their main advantage is the ability to generate heat with a very high temperature of 500-1000oC It allows to use it as an effective source of industrial heat, which is necessary among others in chemical processes (e.g. for the production of hydrogen, coal gasification, and many others). It is also very safe – it is designed in such way that it can be placed safely in the immediate vicinity of the plant, thereby avoiding losses of energy during the transmission.

For many years PROCHEM S.A. has participated in Polish and international research projects related to the issues of nuclear power, and high-temperature reactors (including national project of HTRPL, the European project NC2I-R).

Source: http://www.me.gov.pl/node/26197