HIGH-POWER LINEAR ACCELERATORS FOR TRITIUM PRODUCTION AND TRANSMUTATION OF NUCLEAR WASTE

[摘要] Proton linacs driving high-flux spallation neutron sources are being considered for transmutation of nuclear waste and production of tritium. Advances in high-current linac technology have provided a basis for the development of credible designs for the required accelerator, which has a nominal 1.6-GeV energy, and a 250-mA cw current. A beam with these parameters incident on a lead or lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) spallation target generates high fluxes of thermal neutrons which can be used in a surrounding blanket to produce tritium through the Li-6(n, alpha)T or He-3(n, p)T reactions, or to burn long-lived actinides and fission products in nuclear waste through capture and fission processes. In some scenarios waste actinides and/or other fissile materials in the blanket can produce sufficient fission energy to power the accelerator.

[发布日期] 1991-05-01

[效力级别]  Proceedings Paper