Belgian press release: good news for our colleagues!
Nuclear: the Government gives the green light to the MYRRHA project, the new generation Advanced Driver System.
The Michel Government has just given the go-ahead to the Myrrha project (a versatile hybrid research reactor for high-tech applications), with funding of €550 million between 2019 and 2038.
Myrrha is one of the first prototypes of the World-Class Advanced Driver Systems of new generation.
Contrary to the today’s reactors, MYRRHA is very easy to stop, it has an accelerator capable of turning it on and off like with an on/off switch.
Safer, easier to use and control, it will also be much more efficient.
Mol Nuclear Study Center
This large-scale project will put Belgium at the forefront of Nuclear Research. It is the World’s first nuclear reactor driven by a particle accelerator.
Its advantage? It makes the fission reaction control easier and allows to avoid the risks of runaway and chain reactions, which are a burden in the conventional nuclear reactors.
Its cooling is done with a mixture of lead and bismuth instead of water, allowing to significantly reduce the amount of produced waste.
Even better, with its particle accelerator producing fast neutrons much more powerful than a conventional power plant, it will also be able to recycle the cumbersome nuclear waste in the future and reduce both its volume and its lifetime. (i.e. 300 years instead of 30,000).
In addition to that, MYRRHA will produce new medical radioisotopes. These will target cancer tumors better than ever.
SCK-CEN, Mol’s Nuclear Research Center, has been working for years on this ambitious research reactor project, estimated at €1.6 billion. 40% of the financing is supposed to come from the Belgian side whereas the remaining 60% will come from other countries. With the formal commitment of Belgium, CEN will not have difficulties in getting money abroad. MYRRHA’s interest goes beyond Europe and the Belgian Federal State and it is also looking for overseas partners, for example, Japan.