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GUINEVERE: Toward the transmutation of nuclear waste

Among the wastes produced by the nuclear industry, the most problematic are the minor actinides. In addition to contributing to the release of thermal energy by the irradiated fuel, some of these minor actinides remain radioactive for thousands of years. A possible solution for processing these by-products is transmutation — in other words, transforming them into elements that are less radioactive and/or have a shorter half-life. The development of a nuclear reactor specially designed to “incinerate” actinides could make this a reality.
Researchers at the SCK-CEN nuclear energy research center in Belgium, in cooperation with CNRS and CEA, have developed GUINEVERE, a rather unusual reactor, since it is driven by a particle accelerator. With a so-called subcritical core, the reactor is incapable of maintaining a nuclear chain reaction by itself, so an external accelerator supplies the extra neutrons needed to sustain the fission reactions.
GUINEVERE is a research model that produces no significant power, but allows researchers to develop monitoring procedures for future accelerator-controlled systems like MYRRHA, a medium-power reactor that could become operational by 2023. Truly enough, France’s law on the sustainable management of radioactive materials and wastes, which was passed in 2006, does not allow for transmutation before 2040, if this option is chosen. But by then, if all goes according to plan, the advances made possible by the GUINEVERE and MYRRHA systems will have demonstrated the feasibility of the concept.