Preliminary study on the thorium-loaded accelerator-driven system with 100MeV protons at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Abstract At the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA), spallation neutrons generated by high-energy proton beams are injected into the thorium-loaded systems on March 2010. By combining the Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (FFAG) accelerator with the thorium-loaded system at KUCA, a series of the ADS experiments is carried out under conditions whereby the spallation neutrons are generated at a tungsten target by 100 MeV protons at an intensity of 30 pA. Prompt neutron behavior in the time evolution is observed and thorium fission reactions are attained through the experiments and calculations, respectively. And the effects of neutron leakage and spectrum softening are experimentally observed through the neutron multiplication and reaction rate analyses. From the experimental and numerical analyses, in the future, experimental conditions need to be improved to attain further neutron multiplication using the variation of fuels (thorium, highly-enriched and natural uranium) and moderators (graphite, polyethylene, aluminum and beryllium).

[1]  三澤 毅,et al.  Nuclear reactor physics experiments , 2010 .

[2]  H. Unesaki,et al.  Static and Kinetic Experiments on Accelerator-Driven System with 14MeV Neutrons in Kyoto University Critical Assembly , 2008 .

[3]  Hironobu Unesaki,et al.  Nuclear Reactor Physics Experiments , 2010 .

[4]  C. Bowman.  Once-Through Thermal-Spectrum Accelerator-Driven Light Water Reactor Waste Destruction Without Reprocessing , 2000 .

[5]  T. Ohsawa,et al.  Determination of Lambda-Mode Eigenvalue Separation of a Thermal Accelerator-Driven System from Pulsed Neutron Experiment , 2010 .

[6]  H. Unesaki,et al.  Preliminary Experiments on Accelerator-Driven Subcritical Reactor with Pulsed Neutron Generator in Kyoto University Critical Assembly , 2007 .

[7]  K. Takamiya,et al.  Control system for the FFAG complex at KURRI , 2010 .

[8]  Jae-Yong Lim,et al.  First Injection of Spallation Neutrons Generated by High-Energy Protons into the Kyoto University Critical Assembly , 2009 .

[9]  Carlo Rubbia,et al.  A high gain energy amplifier operated with fast neutrons , 2008 .

[10]  Kenji Ishibashi,et al.  Neutronics Study on Accelerator Driven Subcritical Systems with Thorium-Based Fuel for Comparison Between Solid and Molten-Salt Fuels , 2002 .

[11]  David Lecarpentier,et al.  The AMSTER concept (actinides molten salt transmutER) , 2002 .

[12]  F. Carminati,et al.  An energy amplifier for cleaner and inexhaustible nuclear energy production driven by a particle beam accelerator , 1993 .

[13]  Cheol Ho PYEON,et al.  Reaction Rate Analyses for an Accelerator-Driven System with 14MeV Neutrons in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly , 2009 .

[14]  K. Furukawa,et al.  Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetics , 1990 .

[15]  Philip R. Page,et al.  ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology , 2006 .