NewCleo and JAVYS Sign Contract on Setting Up Joint Venture

Rome, 3 June (TASR-correspondent) - Representatives of an innovative European company called NewCleo and the state-owned Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) have signed a shareholders' agreement on setting up a joint venture called 'Centre for Developing Spent Nuclear Fuel Use'. This represents a further step towards constructing four fourth-generation advanced modular reactors at Jaslovske Bohunice (Trnava region). The companies signed the agreement in Rome. JAVYS will own 51 percent and NewCleo 49 percent of the shares in the newly formed joint venture. The venture will focus on the development of a project for the construction of four LFR-AS-200 reactors with a total capacity of 800 MWe at the Jaslovske Bohunice site. "These reactors will use MOX fuel, made from spent nuclear fuel from existing nuclear reactors in Slovakia, as a source of energy," said the companies, adding that the spent nuclear fuel will be reprocessed in France and then used to produce new fuel rods at a planned French MOX facility owned by NewCleo. These will then be used to generate electricity in the LFR-AS-200 advanced reactors, thus achieving a closed fuel cycle. This new operating model, the companies said, aims to shape the future of nuclear power by creating complementary industrial synergies between thermal and fast reactors, while exploiting the potential of fourth-generation reactors to reprocess nuclear fuel and close the fuel cycle. NewCleo's intention is to use this model as an example for other countries with nuclear reactors or older spent fuel on how the original waste product can be used in a sustainable manner. "We're witnessing today the birth of a new model in the nuclear industry, where public and private companies work together to achieve a closed fuel cycle. This project proves that the future of nuclear energy lies in the intelligent use of existing resources," said founder and head of NewCleo Stefano Buono, noting that spent nuclear fuel is no longer a problem and instead represents a solution for improving Europe's energy security and independence. "With this step, Slovakia becomes a pioneer in the field of closed fuel cycle," he added. am