Draft:Transmutex

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Transmutex is a Swiss company developing nuclear technology for the transmutation of radioactive waste. Its core technology combines a high-power particle accelerator with a subcritical reactor to transform long-lived radioactive elements into shorter-lived or stable isotopes, with the aim of reducing the radiotoxicity and burden of nuclear waste. The same high-power particle accelerator can be used for the production of medical isotopes for cancer treatment.^[1].

Transmutex was founded in 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, by Franklin Servan-Schreiber, Dr. Federico Carminati, Dr. Jean-Pierre Revol, and Marcello Losasso with the support of Professor Maurice Bourquin, and Jean-Christophe de Mestral.^[2]

The company was established with the goal of addressing the global challenge of nuclear waste management, taking into account the persistent difficulties associated with the development and safe operation of deep geological repositories.^[3] Several of its founders had previously been involved in initiatives promoting alternative fuel cycles, including work within the International Thorium Energy Committee (iThEC), a Swiss‑based organization created in 2012 at CERN to advance thorium‑based energy systems and reduce long‑lived nuclear waste.

Transmutex’s approach is based on the research of Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Carlo Rubbia at CERN, who studied Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) building on earlier work carried out at Los Alamos National Laboratory.^[4] Although Rubbia’s research demonstrated considerable potential, it did not previously result in sustained private-sector development.

Transmutex is developing an accelerator-driven system known as START (Subcritical Transmuting Accelerated Regenerative Technology), intended for the transmutation of long-lived nuclear waste produced by conventional nuclear power plants.^[5]

START (Subcritical Transmuting Accelerated Regenerative Technology) is an accelerator-driven system designed for the transmutation of long-lived radioactive waste and energy production. It combines a high-power circular particle accelerator, called a cyclotron, with a lead-cooled fast neutron reactor operating in a subcritical state and using thorium-based fuel containing recycled transuranic elements.^[6][7]: 14

The system operates by directing a proton beam from the cyclotron onto a lead spallation target,^[6] producing fast neutrons that enable the fission of long-lived fission products into shorter-lived isotopes, while simultaneously generating thermal energy from thorium.^{[7]: 20 [5]}

START can reduce the lifetime of long-lived nuclear waste from over a million years to about 800 years^[7]: 83, and can also decrease the volume required for the storage of such waste by up to 80%, thereby significantly reducing the requirements deep geological repositories.^[3]

The system is designed to produce 200 megawatts of net electrical power.^[7]: 15

In 2024, Transmutex and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) conducted one of the first experiments demonstrating the real‑time control of PSI's cyclotron using machine‑learning techniques.^[8] The test used PSI’s Injector 2 accelerator, where reinforcement‑learning algorithms adjusted 14 machine parameters—such as magnetic fields and radio‑frequency settings—to improve beam quality and reduce particle losses.^[8]

The study lasted twelve days and covered multiple operating conditions, including configurations with fewer active resonators to simulate unusual or degraded states. The AI agent reduced beam losses by more than 99% relative to perturbed initial states and reached stable settings within a few dozen learning cycles.  The trained policy remained stable during extended autonomous operation, successfully compensating for disturbances and machine drifts without triggering safety interlocks. In a final validation step, the policy trained at low current was shown to generalize to higher beam currents up to 800 μA, without triggering safety interlocks^[8]

A feasibility study conducted by the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIN-D) in February 2025, estimated that the construction of an initial START system on the site of a former nuclear power plant in Germany could be completed by 2035.^[7]: 19 The study projected that the system could reduce the duration and volume of long-lived nuclear waste stored on-site by 89%.^[7]: 83

As of early 2025, Transmutex has raised over $40 million from investors through multiple funding rounds. The company also received a $4.3 million grant from the United States Department of Energy’s ARPA-E under its NEWTON program, which supports the development of technologies for the transmutation of spent nuclear fuel to reduce the long-term burden of geological disposal.^[9]

Transmutex collaborates with a range of national and international research institutions, including the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), which supports experiments on machine learning for cyclotron operation and fuel manufacturing; CERN, which contributes to engineering aspects and material selection; as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, among others.^{[10][11][12][13]}