The Flemish start-up Magics Instruments has developed an advanced technology with which electronic devices can keep functioning under exceptionally high radiation such as in space or in a nuclear environment. Magics Instruments in Mol, Antwerp province, is a spin-off of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and the Study Centre for Nuclear Energy (SCK-CEN).
Exposure to radiation reduces the lifespan and reliability of electronics. Magics Instruments has created microchips that keep functioning in high radiation environments 1,000 times longer than the best technology currently available. The chips offer new possibilities for use during space missions and in the nuclear sector.
Magics Instruments would like to eventually provide solutions for specific nuclear applications like the management of nuclear waste and the dismantling of nuclear plants. The company was founded last October and builds on research carried out over seven years at KU Leuven and SCK-CEN. Founders Verbeeck and Ying Cao, KU Leuven, SCK-CEN and the Gemma Frisius Fonds invested a total of €350,000 to launch the company.
Researchers of the Free University of Brussels’ (VUB) B-Phot, specialised in photonics, or light technology, have moved into the new Photonics Innovation Centre in Gooik, Flemish Brabant.
You might not know it, but the uranium ore that the United States used in its first atomic bombs was delivered by the Belgian ore company Vieille Montagne (later named Umicore, now Nyrstar). In return, Belgium received priority access to American nuclear know-how and technology in order to build its own nuclear facilities.
Staff at the nuclear power plant at Doel, near Antwerp, were evacuated on Monday for a short time after a cloud of smoke was seen coming from a non-nuclear sector. The incident was soon under control, and the fire service was not required on the scene.