Institute for Energy
The Institute for Energy (IE) is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Center , a Directorate General of the European Commission , based in Petten, the Netherlands .
The institute employs around 210 people and is headed by Giovanni de Santi .
activity
At the EU level, the Institute for Energy supports the decision-makers of various Directorates-General with scientific and technical advice in the areas of energy, environmental protection, safety and sustainability. As part of the EURATOM contract, the Netherlands and the then EURATOM Commission signed a contract in 1961 to establish the European research center, which opened in Petten in 1962. It took over the high-flux reactor for materials research that had gone into operation the year before and is now mainly used for the production of medical isotopes .
Until the 1980s, the research center operated as the Institute for New Materials.
Today, the Institute for Energy develops and disseminates scientific and technical knowledge on selected safety topics in support of the EU strategy for nuclear safety. In the non-nuclear area, it supports the EU strategy for security of energy supply, especially in the areas of efficiency, safety, environmental compatibility and the use of hydrogen. As a result of its nuclear activities, the institute also has nuclear medicine expertise. Medical applications of the core technology for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes are therefore being developed in support of the EU's public health program.
Alleged incident in the research reactor
According to the report of the former IE director Frans Saris it is on 16 November 2001 in the above-mentioned high-flux reactor an officially concealed fault ( English station blackout = total power failure) have given the steps just ahead of a meltdown was. Due to a failure of the external power supply, the pumps that are used to cool the reactor were suddenly without power. After that, the emergency power supply also failed, and the operators had great difficulty opening a valve that was used for passive emergency cooling due to the insufficient power supply .
According to a report by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection from 2014, the LFR reactor was shut down for good in 2010. The fuel elements have since been removed. The high flux reactor (HFR) will remain in operation at the same location and will be replaced by a new, multi-purpose HFR of the Pallas type in 2024.