Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology | FISA-EURADWASTE 2025 & SNETP Forum

At the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology (INCT) we invite you to visit the Centre of Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry, whose work includes issues related to nuclear energy, such as: new methods of radioactive waste disposal, issues of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel with the separation of minor actinides and fuels for new generation nuclear reactors. An important area of the Centre's research is the search for new sources of fissile materials, including the assessment of the possibility of providing raw materials for the production of uranium for the first nuclear reactors from domestic resources, as well as work on ensuring the safety of planned radioactive waste disposal facilities. During the visit, we will see:

modern radiochemical and instrumentation laboratories with specialized research equipment, including a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer, alpha radiation spectrometer, a vacuum furnace with graphite heating, a TOC analyzer, etc.
a hot cell designed for work with high activity gamma and beta radiation sources and for dispensing radioactive substances,
a technological hall with set-ups for testing separation processes, including membrane installations and liquid extraction systems.

The research infrastructure for nuclear power studies can be seen in the Centre for Nuclear Technology Applications, which works on the use of radiotracers to optimise hydrometallurgical processes that can be used both in uranium ore processing and in the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The Centre's laboratories are equipped with chemical reactors, a scale of up to 100 L, a unique cascade mixer-settler system and a coupled gamma probe system.

Materials Research Laboratory

Research for nuclear power is carried out in the Materials Research Laboratory, which houses a scanning electron microscope, an EDS system for the analysis of elemental composition in micro-areas, a chamber furnace capable of operation at temperature up to 1750^oC and a PH-B2000SS-NSCE autoclave for long-term corrosion studies in water under simulated PWR conditions. The laboratory conducts research on materials with increased resistance to oxidation in emergency situations - Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF), such as modified zirconium alloys, and new materials that could be used in nuclear energy, such as High-Entropy Alloys, HEA.

Laboratory of Nuclear Analytical Techniques

We also encourage you to visit the Laboratory of Nuclear Analytical Techniques, which deals mainly with inorganic trace analysis and issues related to quality assurance and control of analytical results. Analytical techniques used in the Laboratory include inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), neutron activation analysis (NAA), gamma spectrometry, LSC and chromatographic techniques. The Laboratory's research program focuses on the development of analytical methods for use in industrial research, including the nuclear industry, engineering and environmental research, which is associated with the development of new analytical protocols for a broad spectrum of materials. In addition, the Laboratory develops issues related to nuclear safety, in particular nuclear forensic analysis.

RAPID Radiation Research and Technology Centre

In INCT you can also visit the RAPID Radiation Research and Technology Centre with its accelerator complex, nominated as the IAEA Collaborating Centre. In addition to electron accelerators (LAE 10, ELEKTRONIKA 10-10, ILU-6), the Centre has infrastructure supporting experiments and material research, and its structure includes the Laboratory for Technological Dose Measurements, accredited by ISO. RAPID conducts material research for the needs of nuclear energy (e.g. the aging of cables in nuclear power plants) and makes its infrastructure available to external users conducting experiments within EUROLABS.