Fracture mechanics testing of irradiated RPV steels by means of sub-sized specimens (FRACTESUS). The European Union has defined clear short and long term objectives to achieve its energy transition towards sustainable energy and climate neutral economy by 2050. The success of this transition relies on the combination of energy efficiency and low carbon energy in all sectors of the economy. In particular, the industry and transport sector will need to rely more heavily on electricity to achieve this goal. In all electricity mix scenarios up to 2050, one needs to rely on one or a combination of existing nuclear power plants, long term operation, new nuclear build and future nuclear systems. Safety and operability of any nuclear systems heavily relies on a defense in depth strategy where the integrity of structural material plays an essential role. Due to material availability and/or irradiation constraints, the use of small size specimen to obtain reliable measurement of the resistance to fracture is needed by the nuclear industry to comply with the amended Nuclear Safety Directive. Small size specimen fracture toughness measurement has already been shown possible. However, some effort is still requested to achieve European regulatory acceptance of this approach. The goal of this project is to join European and International effort to establish the foundation of small specimen fracture toughness validation and demonstration to achieve change in code and standards allowing to address the various national regulatory authority concerns. FRACTESUS is involving in a very early stage regulatory bodies, code and standardization committee, the industry and the international community in order for the consortium to optimize available resources and expertise.

As Internet of Things (IoT) and IoT-Edge-Cloud continuum technologies advance, physical environments are becoming increasingly equipped with sensors, fuelling the development of smart space ecosystems. Massive quantities of data produced by IoT devices revolutionize the way such ecosystems operate via the exploitation of AI models/services. This has led to the emergence of the so-called Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) systems. In general, designing techniques to promote robustness, efficiency and continual operation of AIoT systems requires realistic and trustworthy data at scale. However, such data is not always easy to obtain due to the cost of smart space construction, the inconvenience of long-term device tracking, the sensor/knowledge data gaps in diverse scenarios of a smart space, and the restrictions imposed on sensitive data sharing. Furthermore, an efficient AIoT system operation requires trustworthy AI services, as well as novel approaches for speeding up their inference across the IoT-Edge/Cloud continuum. PANDORA aims to devise and implement a comprehensive framework enabling the delivery of trustworthy datasets of smart space ecosystems, as well as the deployment and green operation of AIoT systems in such spaces. PANDORA spans two phases: (1) prior to AIoT system deployment; (2) post AIoT system deployment and operation. Phase 1 proposes and combines a series of novel techniques such as synthetic data generation, quantification of uncertainties, and data summarization for the delivery of trustworthy datasets, as well as explainable AI and domain-informed model training/testing in smart space ecosystems. Phase 2 defines novel AIaaS and CaaS techniques for the robust, explainable, green and continual operation of AIoT systems deployed in such spaces. The trustworthiness and applicability of the PANDORA framework will be tested through five pilot cases hosting AIoT applications in smart buildings, factories and critical infrastructures.

The security of supply of VVER nuclear fuel has become and will remain of vital importance in countries operating VVER-type reactors, and due to the strongly interconnected European grid network, this is also instrumental for Europe as a whole. The aim of SAVE project is to strengthen VVER fuel security of supply in Europe and Ukraine by qualifying a reliable and safer sovereign VVER-440 fuel design, by developing a fast-track licensing path and improving European capabilities for VVER-440 fuel design qualification. Through a strong European collaboration, a large qualification campaign will be performed within European test facilities to assess the performance of the new, safer and sovereign VVER-440 fuel assembly design. SAVE will prepare in-reactor qualification with mutualised LFAs (Lead Fuel Assemblies) programs, which will significantly accelerate design readiness for fuel reloads. SAVE will also define the plans to enable fully European manufacturing route and address the needs on Core Monitoring Systems, to initiate the next steps of development. To contribute to these objectives and increase the security of supply in Europe, the SAVE project is gathering 17 partners from 8 European countries, within a consortium composed of experienced and highly qualified European actors in nuclear fuel and VVER technologies, including nuclear utilities, TSOs, research entities, leading industrial actors and universities.

SYNAPSE aims to design, develop & deliver an Integrated Cyber Security Risk & Resilience Management Platform, with holistic Situational Awareness, Incident Response & Preparedness capabilities. The proposed platform will encompass: (i) Incident Response through process automation and orchestration mechanisms, also covering organisational/business aspects (e.g., business continuity processes); (ii) AI-enhanced Situational Awareness, encompassing extraction & analytics of actionable and pertinent Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), along with attack early warning & threat hunting systems; (iii) Preparedness through cybersecurity, privacy & business continuity training, covering different training delivery means, allowing it to tailor the delivery method to the content; (iv) Technical & economic risk management, integrating outputs of (i)-(iii) above and supporting risk-benefit analyses (including what-if scenarios) to inform decision-making and enable risk transfer schemes with Smart Contract-enabled cybersecurity insurance; (v) Continuous feedback between (i)-(iv) above, along with standards-based sharing, alerting & reporting (intra- & inter- Member State), based on outputs of (i)-(iii) above, thus enabling the establishment of shared situational awareness, coordinated response and joint preparedness

The lifetime of existing NPPs can potentially be extended to between 60 and 80 years if safety and operability of facilities can be guaranteed. With an average of 25 000 cables for a total length of 1 500 km per nuclear power plant (NPP) unit, all organisations involved in the current and next generation of NPPs have recognised the importance of cable qualification, condition monitoring, and ageing management. Cables, especially their insulation and jacket materials made of polymers, are vulnerable to ageing degradation during normal operation and accidents and means must be established to ensure that cable ageing does not lead to unsafe operation. Latest developments in polymer ageing research have revealed important limits in current methods for estimating the lifetime of NPP cables. These are related to the lack of representativeness of accelerated ageing and the lack of consideration of the polymer composition (e.g. fillers, additives, antioxidants) in cable ageing models. TeaM Cables will develop a novel multiscale approach for more precise estimation of the cable lifetime. The project will analyse the effects of irradiation and temperatures on cables from micro- to macroscale level, in order to develop multiscale models of ageing. Ageing in normal operation conditions and accidental conditions will be addressed. The unique multi-scale and kinetic models produced by the project will be integrated into an open access tool – the TeaM Cables tool - which will be built on the merger of a currently used European cable management tool with a cable ageing modelling tool. In parallel, criteria and protocols for on-site use of non-destructive testing techniques will be proposed. The TeaM Cables multiscale modelling approach and associated tools will allow NPP operators to safely extend the plant life duration of generation II and III reactors and thus contribute to the production of sustainable energy responding to future energy needs.