Nuclear alchemy: Thorium promises power from waste

Aït Abderrahim heads up a project to show that such problems can be overcome. MYRRHA - the Multipurpose Hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications - will be the first large-scale test of the ADS concept. Funded by the European Union, construction is due to start in 2015 and the reactor should be operational by 2023. In the meantime, since January this year, the researchers have had Guinevere to play with - the world's first demonstration accelerator-driven lead-core reactor. "Guinevere is a baby MYRRHA operating at a smaller power," says Aït Abderrahim. His team will use it to test the principle and show that they can measure and control neutron levels in the reactor core.