STATUS OF MYRRHA AND ISOL@MYRRHA IN MARCH 2010

From 1998 on, SCK.CEN has been studying the coupling of a proton accelerator, a liquid Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) spallation target and a LBE cooled, sub-critical fast reactor. The project, called MYRRHA, aims at constructing an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) at the SCK.CEN site in Mol (Belgium). MYRRHA is designed as a multipurpose irradiation facility in order to support research programmes on fission and fusion reactor structural materials and nuclear fuel development. Applications of these are found in ADS systems and in present generation as well as next generation critical reactors. The first objective of MYRRHA however will be to demonstrate on one hand the ADS concept at a reasonable power level and on the other hand the technological feasibility of transmutation of Minor Actinides (MA) and Long-Lived Fission products (LLFP) arising from the reprocessing of used fuel. MYRRHA will also help the development of the Pb alloys technology needed for the lead fast reactor Generation IV concept. Moreover, the implementation of this project will trigger the development of various applications, like a facility for fundamental physics at high-intensity Radioactive Ion Beams (RIB) called ISOL@MYRRHA. This paper presents the present status of the MYRRHA project and in particular the characteristics of ISOL@MYRRHA.