Transmutation research

This is, of course, one of the main research applications envisaged for MYRRHA. Transmutation, in brief, is the transformation of one isotope into another one by bombarding the atom with a high neutron flux. The underlying idea is to transmute long-lived fission products and minor actinides, the most annoying due to their long half-life nuclear waste, into less long-lived waste, reducing the burden on the nuclear waste stocks.

MYRRHA is not intented as an industrial transmutator, but as a first research tool for the effectiveness of the process. It will learn us a lot about the procedures to be used during transmutation exercises and will provide a lot of information to the next generation, industrial transmutators.