Uncertainty Assessment for Accelerator-Driven Systems
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Cadarache (France)
The concept of a subcritical system driven by an external source of neutrons provided by an accelerator ADS (Accelerator Driver System) has been recently revived and is becoming more popular in the world technical community with active programs in Europe, Russia, Japan, and the U.S. A general consensus has been reached in adopting for the subcritical component a fast spectrum liquid metal cooled configuration. Both a lead-bismuth eutectic, sodium and gas are being considered as a coolant; each has advantages and disadvantages. The major expected advantage is that subcriticality avoids reactivity induced transients. The potentially large subcriticality margin also should allow for the introduction of very significant quantities of waste products (minor Actinides and Fission Products) which negatively impact the safety characteristics of standard cores. In the U.S. these arguments are the basis for the development of the Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW), which has significant potential in reducing nuclear waste levels. Up to now, neutronic calculations have not attached uncertainties on the values of the main nuclear integral parameters that characterize the system. Many of these parameters (e.g., degree of subcriticality) are crucial to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of this concept. In this paper we will consider uncertainties related to nuclear data only. The present knowledge of the cross sections of many isotopes that are not usually utilized in existing reactors (like Bi, Pb-207, Pb-208, and also Minor Actinides and Fission Products) suggests that uncertainties in the integral parameters will be significantly larger than for conventional reactor systems, and this raises concerns on the neutronic performance of those systems.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Cadarache (France)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); USDOE Nuclear Energy Programs
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 11846
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/RA/CP-99217; TRN: US0102148
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ANS GLOBAL '99 International Conference on Future Nuclear Systems, Jackson Hole, WY (United States), 30 Aug - 3 Sep 1999; Other Information: PBD: 10 Jun 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCELERATORS
COOLANTS
LIQUID METALS
CRITICALITY
CROSS SECTIONS
NEUTRON SOURCES
ACCELERATOR DRIVEN TRANSMUTATION
RADIOISOTOPES
INFORMATION NEEDS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Accelerator Driver System (ADS)
Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW)
Actinides
Fission Products
Generalized Perturbation Theory (GPT)
Equivalent Generalized Perturbation Theory (EGPT)