Electron versus proton accelerator driven sub-critical system performance using TRIGA reactors at power

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:22039480

Carta, M; Burgio, N; D'Angelo, A; Santagata, A ^[1]; Petrovich, C ^[2]; Schikorr, M ^[3]; Beller, D ^[4]; Felice, L S ^[5]; Imel, G ^[6]; Salvatores, M ^[3]

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1. ENEA, C.R. Casaccia, via Anguillarese, 301, 00060, S. Maria di Galeria, Rome (Italy)
2. ENEA, C.R.E. Clementel, via M. M. Sole, 4, 40129, Bologna (Italy)
3. Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe FZK, Postfach 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)
4. Univ. of Nevada, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4027 (United States)
5. CEA, CEN Cadarache, 13108 St-Paul-lez-Durance (France)
6. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)

This paper provides a comparison of the performance of an electron accelerator-driven experiment, under discussion within the Reactor Accelerator Coupling Experiments (RACE) Project, being conducted within the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI), and of the proton-driven experiment TRADE (TRIGA Accelerator Driven Experiment) originally planned at ENEA-Casaccia in Italy. Both experiments foresee the coupling to sub-critical TRIGA core configurations, and are aimed to investigate the relevant kinetic and dynamic accelerator-driven systems (ADS) core behavior characteristics in the presence of thermal reactivity feedback effects. TRADE was based on the coupling of an upgraded proton cyclotron, producing neutrons via spallation reactions on a tantalum (Ta) target, with the core driven at a maximum power around 200 kW. RACE is based on the coupling of an Electron Linac accelerator, producing neutrons via photoneutron reactions on a tungsten-copper (W-Cu) or uranium (U) target, with the core driven at a maximum power around 50 kW. The paper is focused on analysis of expected dynamic power response of the RACE core following reactivity and/or source transients. TRADE and RACE target-core power coupling coefficients are compared and discussed. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22039480
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCELERATOR DRIVEN TRANSMUTATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COPPER
CYCLOTRONS
ELECTRONS
EXPERIMENT PLANNING
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
NEUTRON REACTIONS
PHOTONEUTRONS
PROTONS
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTOR CORES
SPALLATION
SUBCRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
TANTALUM
TRIGA TYPE REACTORS
TUNGSTEN
URANIUM