Scientific and Technical Activities

In order to provide Turkey with the Thorium-fueled Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), one of the 4^th gen nuclear reactors, and continue assuming the leading role in the field, FİGES organizes and participates in the various scientific and technical conventions.

Our purpose is to raise MSR awareness among the industrial organizations as much as the pollical, scientific, and academic cycles in Turkey, and to show Turkey’s determination to the similar cycles in abroad.

In 2016 and 2017, we have presented the “Road Map” study on the MSRs, thorium use, and realizing the MSR project in Turkey before the authorities of the Marmara Research Center of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and collaborated with the authorities on several project studies.

A committee of TÜBİTAK and FİGES representatives visited the laboratories at the Grenoble campus of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) on October 18-19, 2018 and discussed the work plan for establishing a collaborative effort between the CNRS and TÜBİTAK as well as identifying the potential contributions of FİGES.

In June 2017, we attended the Summer Meeting of the SAMOFAR project along with the TÜBİTAK representatives to present our works on the heat exchanger design.

As a result of the studies conducted in collaboration with the TÜBİTAK, the MSR Technology Identification Workshop was organized at the Marmara Research Center on December 3-4, 2017 with the contributions of FİGES to provide the Turkish nuclear experts with an insight to the types of MSR.

At the event, the noted Turkish nuclear experts of several universities, FİGES, and TÜBİTAK, as well as the TAEK representatives were presented with a full day of seminars by the international experts (of CNRS-Grenoble, France), and the subjects of MSR, thorium use were discussed in detail.
On the second day of the event, the Turkish experts discussed and exchanged ideas about the MSR type of reactors. (https://mam.tubitak.gov.tr/tr/duyuru/ergimis-tuz-reaktoru-teknoloji-belirleme-calistayi

FİGES attended the 5^th International Nuclear Power Plants Summit (INPPS March 6-7, 2018) by opening a display room. Many national and international audiences were provided with the information on the Nuclear Technology activities, which attracted a lot of attention, and the foundation of business collaborations were laid in person.
Attending the 4^th International Energy Symposium of Anatolia, organized by Trakya University in Edirne on April 18-20, 2018, Dr. Reşat Uzmen, the Nuclear Technology Development Director of FİGES, and Prof. Dr. L. Berrin Erbay, an instructor at Osmangazi University’s Faculty of Engineering, and a FİGES consultant, gave their presentation, titled “Thorium – Molten Salt Reactors (Th-MSR): The Last Developments in the World and in Turkey.
Invited by Ege University’s Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Dr. Reşat Uzmen, the Nuclear Technology Development Director of FİGES, gave, titled “The Molten Salt Reactors with Thorium Fuel Cycle” before the lecturers of the Institute on May 9, 2018.
Reşat Uzmen, the Nuclear Energy Director of FİGES, gave his presentation, titled “Resources of Thorium and Rare Earth Elements in Turkey and Studies of Separation,” at the “Workshop of Separating the Thorium and Rare Earth Elements” organized in Kuşadası on May 10-11, 2018, within the scope of the TÜBİTAK project carried out by Ege University’s Institute of Nuclear Sciences.
Upon request of the German Reactor Safety organization (GRS), whom FİGES contacted during the International Nuclear Plants Summit, an in-depth convention was organized in Garching-Munchen, on May 30, 2018 to establish an advanced collaborative effort.

At the end of the Summer Meeting of the SAMOFAR Project, organized at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on July 3-5, 2018, a group of FİGES and TÜBİTAK experts visited the European Union-Euratom Joint Research Center (JRC-Karlsruhe) laboratories located inside the KIT campus, where the scientific research on the molten thorium, plutonium, and uranium salts are conducted.

Representatives of FİGES and TÜBİTAK attended the Gen IV International Forum (GIF) Symposium, which was organized in Paris on October 16-18, 2018. The importance of certain features of the advanced reactor systems, namely “inherent safety, sustainable economic characteristics, construction options in various power capacities, practical energy output to be used in several industries, flexible operating conditions, and uncomplicated fuel supply (uranium and thorium)”, were once again asserted at the symposium. Afterwards, the negotiations took place between the GIF Board and TÜBİTAK authorities concerning Turkey’s membership in the GIF (https://www.gen-4.org/gif/jcms/c_9260/public).

This year’s International Thorium Energy Conference (IThEC-2018) – which has been organized by the International Thorium Energy Organization(IThEO) at different cities since 2010 – was held in Brussels on October 29-31. Considering the agenda and the participants – which included the MSR developers and researchers – FİGES decided to attend this year’s conference. It is understood from the presentations and in person meetings that the most significant advantage of a country like Turkey is that her potential to develop “domestic MSR technology” in collaboration with the society of designers and developers of thorium-fueled the MSR in the world, of the entire fuel cycle, and develop special alloys.

As usual, FİGES attended the “International Nuclear Plants Summit” in 2019. The company has cultivated its relationships with various national and international organizations of the sector.

FİGES attended the final meeting of the SAMOFAR project organized in Delf, the Netherlands, on June 4-5, 2019, to present the conclusive results of its design.

The 2019 session of the annual event organized by the European Technical Safety Organizations Network (ETSON), which brings the Europe’s leading Technical Safety Organizations operating in the nuclear safety together to exchange information, was hosted by GRS in Cologne, Germany on November 4-5. FİGES took part in this event, which was organized under the name of EUROSAFE2019, and attended by more than 250 experts, as an investor of nuclear sector in Turkey. At the event, the company interacted with the most powerful Technical Safety Organizations in the Europe. Closely monitoring the developments in the nuclear safety around the world, FİGES established direct contact with the representatives of several organizations at the event.

As usual, FİGES attended this year’s “Nuclear Power Plants III Expo & VII Summit of 2020,” the largest nuclear energy platform in the Middle East and Africa, where the business opportunities in the nuclear industry is discussed.

On May 2020, a broadscale webinar was hosted with the contributions and organization of FİGES A.Ş. The purpose of the event, which hosted the experts and representatives of the nuclear industry, was to introduce and discuss the MSR technology. Positively received by the audience, the event featured the scientific presentations and personal views of the participants.