Company Description:

The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) is actively working on designing and building this multifunctional research installation in Mol. MYRRHA is the very first prototype in the world of a nuclear reactor, driven by a particle accelerator with a significant thermal output.

MYRRHA distinguishes itself from existing reactors in other areas, as:

• it operates with fast neutrons, driven by an accelerator. Thanks to these fast neutrons, the fissile material will be used more efficiently within the reactor, which will reduce radioactive waste.
• the reactor is cooled by a lead-bismuth alloy.

In MYRRHA's unique configuration known as an Accelerator Driven System (ADS), the reactor core is characterised by the fact that there is insufficient fissile material to spontaneously maintain the fission. We call this a subcritical reactor.

It must therefore be continuously fed by an external neutron source: a particle accelerator. This accelerator fires protons at a target, creating the neutrons that will maintain the fission chain reactions in the reactor.