Adapting the MYRRHA concept to meet the XT-ADS objectives

The EUROTRANS project is an integrated project in the Sixth European Framework Program in the context of Partitioning and Transmutation. The objective of this project is the step-wise approach to a European Transmutation Demonstration. This project aims to deliver an advanced design of a small-scale Accelerator Driven System (ADS), XT-ADS, as well as the conceptual design of a European Facility for Industrial Transmutation, EFIT. The partners of this project accepted to use the MYRRHA Draft-2 design file as a starting basis for the design of the short-term XT-ADS demonstration machine. Instead of starting from a blank page, this allowed optimising an existing design towards the needs of XT-ADS, and within the limits of safety requirements. Many options have been revisited and the framework is now set up. While our MYRRHA Draft-2 design file was still a conceptual design, our intention is to get at the end of the EUROTRANS project (March 2009) an advanced design of the XT-ADS machine, albeit a first advanced design. Moreover, industrial partners (Ansaldo Nucleare, Areva) will contribute to this XT-ADS design