CYCLADS: Designing an Innovative Cyclotron for Nuclear Waste Transmutation

Success Story

Application Domains

The CYCLADS project aims to design an innovative High Power Cyclotron as part of Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS), for novel nuclear waste management applications. ADS is one method of incinerating the long-lasting actinide component of spent (used) nuclear fuel, which poses serious long-term radiological risks. By combining advances in accelerator expertise, innovative ideas in nuclear science, and developments in the High Temperature Superconductor (HTS), CYCLADS will bring a transformative impact to European society, by reducing the volume and lifetime of the most dangerous nuclear waste through waste transmutation. The new ingenious ADS may thus contribute to increase the feasibility of geological repositories (underground waste containment facilities). Moreover, with this development, CYCLADS aims to propose technological solutions to decision-makers and to answer questions such as: what is the final economic benefit of this new ADS? What are the key drivers influencing its market potential? The results of CYCLADS might eventually be translated to other high power accelerator applications, such as neutrino physics, radioisotopes production, and the nuclear industry, thus multiplying its socio-economic value.