(ANSA) - BELGRADE, NOV 23 - A consortium that includes Ansaldo Nucleare and Reinvent Energy (Romania) has been awarded a contract worth approximately 20 million euro for the design, procurement, installation, and commissioning service of the so-called ATHENA experimental plant, Ansaldo said in a statement today. ATHENA, the abbreviations for Advanced Thermo-Hydraulics Experiment for Nuclear Application, is 2.21 MW pool-type facility housing 880 tons of liquid lead in a main vessel and will host scale components for testing and demonstration of Lead Fast Reactor technology, the company said. "In an era of energy transition and on a path towards carbon neutrality, nuclear energy plays a fundamental role and in particular the implementation of 4th generation reactors. In this context, the research facilities that support technological development and, at the same time, the production of experimental data, are fundamental," Ansaldo noted. (ANSA).