Contribution of the European commission to a European strategy for hlw management through partitioning & transmutation: Presentation of MYRRHA and its Role in the European P&T strategy

MYRRHA (Multi-purpose hYbrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications) is an experimental accelerator-driven system (ADS) currently being developed at SCK•CEN for replacement of material testing reactor BR2. The MYRRHA facility is conceived as a flexible fast-spectrum irradiation facility that is able to run in both subcritical and critical modes. The applications catalogue of MYRRHA includes fuel developments for innovative reactor systems, material developments for GEN IV systems and fusion reactors, doped silicon production, radioisotope production, and fundamental science applications, thanks to the highpower proton accelerator. Next to these applications, MYRRHA will demonstrate the ADS full concept by coupling a high-power proton accelerator, a multimegawatts spallation target, and a subcritical reactor at reasonable power level to allow operational feedback, scalable to an industrial demonstrator, and to allow the study of efficient transmutation of high-level nuclear waste. Because MYRRHA is based on the heavy liquid metal technology, namely lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE), it will be able to significantly contribute to the development of Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) technology and will have the role of European Technology Pilot Plant in the roadmap for LFR. The current design of the MYRRHA ADS and its ability to contribute to the European Commission strategy for high-level waste management through Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) are discussed in this chapter.