Disposition of Nuclear Waste Using Subcritical Accelerator-Driven Systems
ATW destroys virtually all the plutonium and higher actinides without reprocessing the spent fuel in a way that could lead to weapons material diversion. An ATW facility consists of three major elements: (1) a high-power proton linear accelerator; (2) a pyrochemical spent fuel treatment i waste cleanup system; (3) a liquid lead-bismuth cooled burner that produces and utilizes an intense source-driven neutron flux for transmutation in a heterogeneous (solid fuel) core. The concept is the result of many years of development at LANL as well as other major international research centers. Once demonstrated and developed, ATW could be an essential part of a global non-proliferation strategy for countries that could build up large quantities of plutonium from their commercial reactor waste. ATW technology, initially proposed in the US, has received wide and rapidly increasing attention abroad, especially in Europe and the Far East with major programs now being planned, organized and tided. Substantial convergence presently exists on the technology choices among the programs, opening the possibility of a strong and effective international collaboration on the phased development of the ATW technology.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Defense (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 761465
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-98-1789; TRN: US0100496
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems, Tel-Aviv (IL), 06/27/1998--07/02/1998; Other Information: PBD: 27 Jun 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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