Development status of the MYRRHA injector

Abstract

The MYRRHA project aims at coupling a cw 600 MeV, 4 mA proton linac with a sub-critical reactor as the very first prototype nuclear reactor to be driven by a particle accelerator (ADS). Among several applications, MYRRHA main objective is to demonstrate the principle of partitioning and transmutation (P&T) as a viable solution to drastically reduce the radiotoxicity of long-life nuclear waste. For this purpose, the linac needs an unprecedented level of reliability in terms of allowable beam trips. The normal conducting injector delivers 16.6 MeV protons to the superconducting main linac. The first section of the injector (up to 5.9 MeV) consists of an ECR source, a 4-Rod-RFQ and a rebunching line followed by 7 individual CH-type cavities. This entire section will be set up and operated by SCK·CEN in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, for ample performance and reliability testing. The first CH cavity has been sent for power tests to IAP Frankfurt, Germany. The most recent status of all cavities, couplers and the beam diagnostics of the MYRRHA injector is presented in this paper.