Belgium’s Council of Ministers has just approved six hundred and forty-six million dollars to construct the Myrrha accelerator-driven research reactor at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center’s (SCK-CEN) site in Mol. This funding will cover the period from 2019-2038. The funds will be used for construction of the first important part of Myrrha which is referred to as the Minerva installation. The funds will also be used for the research and development to support the Minerva installation and operating costs for Minerva following the completion of construction in 2026.
      The Belgian government also approved the establishment of an international non-profit-making body known as AISBL/IVZW Myrrha. The body has a special legal status that is adopted by big projects that are financed by multiple foreign states. A spokesman for SCK-CEN said, “This decision will strengthen promotion and reception of foreign partners which are interested in the Myrrha project and its applications.”
       Myrrha or the Multipurpose Hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications will be a sub-critical assembly. Accelerated protons will trigger the release of neutrons in a low-enriched uranium core. This will result in brief periods of criticality in the core. The fifty-seven-megawatt thermal accelerator-driven system will deliver a six hundred million electron volt beam to a liquid lead-bismuth spallation target. This target is coupled to a subcritical fast reactor cooled with liquid lead-bismuth.
       Myrrha is replacing the aging Belgium BR2 research reactor. It will be used for a variety of research functions such as demonstrating the practicality of the idea of transmuting the radionuclides with long half-lives in nuclear waste. Other research areas include nuclear physics, atomic physics, fundamental nuclear interactions, solid-state physics and nuclear medicine. It will also be used to produce radioisotopes for medical diagnostics and treatment.
       The Director General of SCK-CEN said, “Thanks to its unique and innovative nature, the research infrastructure will attract researchers from all over the world to Belgium and will train a new generation of experts to provide technological solutions to these major challenges.”
        The project is part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. It is also one of three new research reactors that are an important part of the European Research Area of Experimental Reactors. The other two new research reactors are the Jules Horowitz reactor at Cadarache in France and the Palla reactor at Petten in the Netherlands.
        The construction of Myrrha was approved by the Belgian government in 2010. Belgium has committed to suppling forty percent of the one thousand one hundred and ten dollars projected cost for the whole project. Other participants will include the European Union and the European Investment Bank. A total of seventy percent of the cost will come from members of the European Union.
        The director of the Myrrha program said, “Thanks to our government’s support, Myrrha has made great progress. I would like to thank everyone who assisted in obtaining this decision and who supported this project from the very beginning, in Belgium and abroad. The political, industrial and local authorities’ support also contributed to this success and will remain crucial to complete the project.”

Ambient office  = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Snap pea from Central Market = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Banana from Central Market = 107 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 111 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 80 nanosieverts per hour

       My blogging about commercial nuclear reactors has focused on the generation of electricity from such reactors. In addition to generating electricity, the heat given off by nuclear reactors can also be used directly for industry and district heating. District heating is a system that distributes heat generated in a central location through a network of insulated pipes to residential and industrial consumers. Residences use the heat for space heating and to heat water. There are two values assigned to the output of a commercial power plant. Watts can be a measure of both electricity and heat.
      Pool-type light water nuclear reactors (also called swimming pool reactors) feature a core immersed in an open pool of normal water. The water serves as a neutron moderator, coolant and radiation shield. One of the benefits of a pool reactor is that the cooling system is operating at normal air pressure and temperature. This makes the reactor much safer to work around. These reactors burn enriched uranium that is less than twenty percent U-235 which is considered highly enriched uranium. Pool reactors are not used to generated electricity but have been used as heat sources. They cannot meltdown as commercial power reactors may do. And they have very low emissions of radioactive materials which makes them desirable for use in urban areas.
      China began researching the possible application of nuclear power to heating in the early 1980s. During 1983 and 1984, the Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University used its experimental pool-type reactor to provide heating for nearby buildings. Also during that time, INET constructed two nuclear heating reactors. One of those reactors was a deep pool-type and the other one was a regular vessel-type reactor. INET built a five Megawatt experimental thermal pool-type reactor called the NHR5 between 1986 and 1989. The larger production prototype NHR200-II was constructed based on the design of the NHR5.
             The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has been constructing and studying experimental pool reactors for over fifty years. The China Institute of Atomic Energy recently operated a pool-type reactor for one hundred sixty-eight hours. Following this success, the CNNC started an independent research and development program with their Yanlong pool-type reactor (also known as DHR-400) in November of 2017.
       CNNC said, “The Yanlong reactor is an effective way to improve China’s energy resource structure by utilizing nuclear energy for district heating, and to ease the increasing pressures on energy supplies. Nuclear energy heating could also reduce emissions, especially as a key technological measure to combat haze during winter in northern China. Thus, it can benefit the environment and people’s health in the long run.”
       The Yanlong reactor “can be constructed either inner land or on the coast, making it an especially good fit for northern inland areas, and it has an expected lifespan of around 60 years. In terms of costs, the thermal price is far superior to gas, and is comparably economical with coal and combined heat and power.”
        China General Nuclear and Tsinghua University are working on a feasibility study for the first commercial nuclear plant dedicated to district heating. The plant would use the technology developed for the NHR200-II.  The president of Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute and senior vice president of State Nuclear Power Technology Company said that using fossil fuels for heating is creating terrible pollution in China during winter months. He also said, “To prevent air pollution and to enhance human life, we think that nuclear power, especially the use of nuclear energy to supply district heating, is very important.”

Ambient office  = 137 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Brussell sprout from Central Market = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour