Newcleo opens FASTER, a €10m MOX fuel test and training centre near Marcoule
Victoria Shinder2 min readNewcleo, the Paris-headquartered developer of lead-cooled fast reactors, has inaugurated FASTER, a €10 million centre for nuclear fuel engineering, testing and training in Chusclan in France's Gard department, near the Marcoule nuclear site, World Nuclear News reported on 15 October. The name stands for Fuel process Assembly Storage Training and Enhanced Reality; the project was announced in March 2025.
What the centre does. FASTER gives Newcleo's fuel team — around 100 engineers and specialists — space for engineering, prototype testing and immersive training in support of its mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel manufacturing technology. The company describes a "test and learn" approach: concepts are turned into prototypes and mock-ups, tested under representative conditions and refined before they move towards industrial use. Seven test facilities are already in operation and more are being built. They cover separate steps of MOX production: optimising powder dosing, glovebox ergonomics, pellet handling, fuel pin assembly and decontamination, pellet inspection and helium filling.
Why MOX. Newcleo intends to fabricate MOX — a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxides — for its own lead-cooled fast reactors and possibly for other customers. In fast reactors, the report explains, MOX allows fuel to be recycled several times in a closed fuel cycle, extracting more energy from the same amount of natural uranium than a once-through cycle in thermal reactors and reducing the volume and radioactivity of waste. Founder and chief executive Stefano Buono said FASTER lets the company develop, test and qualify technologies before deploying them in licensed facilities, which he said de-risks the MOX manufacturing programme in France and the United States.
The plant it is preparing for. Newcleo plans to invest directly in a MOX fabrication plant in the Aube department, near Nogent-sur-Seine. It submitted its safety options file to the French regulator ASNR in December 2024, and the ASNR published its opinion on the proposed safety features in July 2026. The modular plant would require an initial €1.8 billion and could eventually have three production lines. The first, scheduled for 2030, would involve up to 2,000 people during construction and create 850 direct jobs; a further €3.2 billion by 2040 could add two more lines and bring direct employment to 1,700.
Reactor timeline. According to Newcleo's roadmap as reported, a first non-nuclear precursor prototype of its reactor is due this year in Italy, the first reactor could operate in France as early as 2032, and a final investment decision on the first commercial plant is expected around 2029.
Source: World Nuclear News — https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/newcleo-opens-mox-fuel-development-centre