The ISOL@MYRRHA Project at SCK•CEN

Since about a decade, 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 core. The project, called MYRRHA, aims at constructing an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) at the SCK•CEN site in Mol. MYRRHA is driven by a high-power proton accelerator with a beam energy of 600 MeV and a design beam current of 4 mA. Apart from the experimental and irradiation possibilities in the subcritical reactor, the MYRRHA proton accelerator on its own will be used as a supply of proton beams for a number of experiments. The feasibility study for an ISOL facility developed next to this accelerator was performed within the “Belgian Research Initiative on eXotic nuclei” network funded by the BELSPO. Based on this feasibility study, the detailed technical design is now in preparation. The facility should use up to 5% of the proton beams delivered by the MYRRHA linac, for the production of Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) via the Isotope Separator On Line method. By combining the high primary-beam intensity with selective ionization and a beam purification system with high mass-resolving power, it will be possible to produce intense RIBs with high purity.