SANE Project poster presented at PWR Prague 2026 conference

Publish date: 03/11/2026

Mr. Duspiva presented SANE's work during the poster session at PWR Prague 2026, assessing the safety of non-electric applications of SMRs, showcasing how nuclear energy can support future needs.

The conference PWR Prague 2026 was held in the Grand Hotel International Prague on 20-21 October 2026. It was organized by Czech Nuclear Society (CNS) with the support of ENS as a traditional conference with a 2-year periodicity. This vintage is the 10th occurrence including former VVER conferences.

The program of the conference was started by chairwomen of the Organizing Committee which introduced the first speaker of the session of Welcome notes, the President of CNS Dr. Daneš Burket. The ENS was represented by the President Dr. Michele Coeck with pre-recorded welcome speech, in which the recent European situation and future perspectives of nuclear energy were pointed out. Dr. Mario Leberig, Vice-president of Fuel Engineering and Fuel Germany, represented the general partner of the conference Framatome. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic (CR) was represented by the Director General for Nuclear Energy and New Technologies Dr. Tomáš Ehler, who summarized the importance of the nuclear in the mix of Czech Republic. The current activities of ministry are related with the financing of the Dukovany 5,6 project. The utility ČEZ, the only operator of nuclear energetic reactors in the CR, was represented by a member of Board of Directors of ČEZ and Chief Nuclear Officer Dr. Bohdan Zronek. He pointed out the role of reactors in operation for a security of electricity supply, transition of fuel suppliers from Russian TVEL to diversified supplies by Westinghouse and Framatome, programs for the safe long-term operation and fulfillment of the target of 32 TWh electricity production from nuclear. Dr. Petr Závodský, Chairman of BoD and CEO of Elektrárna Dukovany II presented the current situation of the project of the construction of two units of APR-1000 reactors in Dukovany site. Dr. Patrik Špátzal, Chairman of BoD and CEO of ÚJV Řež, pointed out an importance of the knowledge intergenerational transfer. The last speaker of this Welcome note session was the President of FNC Technology Dr. Byung Chul Lee. He emphasized the importance of international collaboration, pointed out current collaborations among his organization and Czech partners and informed about the opening of the Prague office of the FNC Technology as the important step forward to fostering future collaboration between Czech and Korea.

The remaining program of the conference was split into four technical sessions focused on important topics of PWR reactors

Nuclear fuel and fuel cycle – this session included presentations related to the new types of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors as well as for standard PWRs, but also to the issues of closing of fuel cycle in visions for CR and current practices in France,
Efficient maintenance solutions – chemical regimes in coolant, Cybersecurity, development of specific manipulators for diagnostic and maintenance were presented,
Safe long-term operation – issues of aging management, lifetime extension programs or fuel and material qualification for long-term operation were pointed out, and
New PWR Builds – presented future perspectives of the nuclear energy in various areas of quality management, closing gaps in deploying new advanced technologies, development of new SMR technologies, and supporting activities for licensing processes.

The poster session consisted of less posters, but they covered interesting topics like SMR non-electric applications studied withing the EC Horizon Europe project SANE, or CFD simulations of flow fields on secondary side of stem generators.

The conference had close to 140 participants from 16 countries, from USA through Europe to Korea. The General partner Framatome was already mentioned, the Gold partners were Fortum, Studsvik, FNC Technology, Westinghouse, and ÚJV Řež, regular partner is bertin vf nuclear, and the media partner is the journal Jaderná energie (Nuclear energy). The Ministry of Industry and Trade and ENS have granted their auspices to the conference.

The closing remarks were expressed by the President of CNS, he also invited all to the next PWR conference to be held in fall 2028 in Prague.