Nuclear energy in Europe is in a state of limbo. Germany has announced the closure of its nuclear plants and will burn coal instead; France strongly relies on reactors that are more than half a century old. And the storage problem of radioactive nuclear waste is forwarded to future generations. So when will European politics acknowledge the need for serious new investments in nuclear energy?

Samofar, the acronym for the European research programme, stands for Safety Assessment of Molten Fast Reactor. This new type of nuclear reactor is not only inherently safe, it could also deliver a breakthrough in nuclear waste management and make nuclear energy both safe and sustainable.

Samofar is a major Euratom research project and part of the European Horizon 2020 programme. The consortium includes 11 institutions, among which seven research institutes with TU Delft in the lead. TU Delft is regarded as a centre of expertise in fundamental experimental thermal-hydraulics and computational reactor physics.

The research project, which started in 2015, was concluded with a festive meeting in Delft city centre on 4-5 July 2019. Work package teams presented their main results and international speakers presented an update on the future of molten salt reactors. Professor Jan Leen Kloosterman coordinated the meeting and has put the presentations and video recordings online.

Work continues after the Samofar closure, explains Dr Danny Lathouwers, who attended the meeting in his capacity as leader of the Accident Analysis work package. Before Samofar, there was the EVOL programme (2010-2013), which studied the viability of liquid fuel fast reactors. And research will continue under the Samosafer project (2019-2023), which focuses on new safety barriers and controlled behaviour in severe accidents.