The GENEPI-3C Accelerator for the GUINEVERE Project

GUINEVERE, Generator-of-Uninterrupted-Intense-NEutrons-at-the-lead-VEnus-REactor, is a project of the Domain 2 of the FP6 EUROTRANS Integrated Project devoted to Accelerator Driven System (ADS) feasibility studies. Domain 2, ECATS, is related to specific Experiments for Coupling an Accelerator, a Target and a Subcritical core. GUINEVERE will investigate on-line reactivity monitoring, sub-criticality determination and operational procedures in an ADS. The project consists in coupling a modified VENUS facility at the SCK-CEN site in Mol (Belgium) to an upgraded GENEPI neutron source. SCK-CEN is transforming the water moderated VENUS reactor into a fast lead core facility, the fuel and lead rodlets being provided by CEA. The GEnerator-of-NEutrons-Pulsed-and-Intense is an electrostatic accelerator generating 14 MeV neutrons by bombarding a high intensity deuteron beam on a tritium target located in the reactor core. CNRS is designing and building a new accelerator, GENEPI-3C, to meet the new requirements of the experimental program: it will be capable of delivering alternatively 1 μs long deuteron pulses with adjustable repetition rate, as well as continuous beam with programmable interruptions. This paper will describe the design and commissioning of the GENEPI accelerator