A SIMPLE PUSH OF THE BUTTON // Six years to the day after his brother had laid the first stone, on 7 July 1966, King Baudoin travelled to Dessel for the official opening of Eurochemic. “A simple push of the button started the reprocessing operations of uranium or plutonium enabling the reuse of the fuel in nuclear reactors”, a newspaper wrote at the time. This ‘simple push of the button’ had been preceded by six years of intensive and innovative scientific and technological work. About a hundred young and highly qualified nuclear specialists from 13 European countries joined forces to make Eurochemic a unique industrial pilot project. This cooperation took place in an exceptional context of scientific and technological optimism. The Eurochemists were highly ambitious in their desire to have the future generations benefit from the huge advantages of nuclear energy. For the scientists, the Eurochemic plant was the pick of the bunch.