R And D Programme for the Fuel Qualification of the Research Fast Reactor MYRRHA

The innovative fast spectrum experimental facility MYRRHA is being developed at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK-CEN. MYRRHA, a flexible fast spectrum research reactor (50-100 MW(th)), is conceived as an accelerator driven system (ADS) demonstrator, able to operate in sub-critical and critical modes. It contains a proton accelerator of 600 MeV, a spallation target and a multiplying core with MOX fuel, cooled by liquid lead-bismuth. The project started in 1997 and the reactor is forecasted to be fully operational around 2022-2023. The driver fuel for the MYRRHA core is one of its key components. Of special concern is the corrosion behaviour of the cladding materials (15-15Ti or T91 steels) in a lead-bismuth environment with the power profile envisaged for MYRRHA. An overview of the MYRRHA design and the R and D effort ongoing or planned is presented. (author)