Nuclear Energy Options and Project-X

Shekhar MishraFermilab

Yousry GoharANL

June 7th 2010

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Accelerators for America’s Future Symposium

Areas of Opportunities

Accelerator Driven Systems Treatment of flue gases, waste, and water Isotope generation and heavy ion therapy Environmentally friendly industrial use Defense, cargo interrogation, and monitoring Next generation discovery science machines

Some policy issues

Demonstration facilities Improved interagency, agency- industry communication Strengthened educational programs

Schematic of An Accelerator Driven System

7th UofC, ANL and Fermilab Collaboration Meeting3

A multi-MW proton source, Project-X, in the key element of Fermilab’s strategy for future development of the accelerator complex. It can be used for a demonstration of accelerator for Nuclear Energy and key R&D.

Project-X Schematic

7th UofC, ANL and Fermilab Collaboration Meeting4

In principle a CW beam can be extracted from the

3 GeV Linac at any location. Current design

beam power is 1 MW/GeV.

SSR0 SSR1 SSR2 β=0.6 β=0.9

325 MHz2.5-160 MeV

ILC

1.3 GHz 2-3 GeV

650 MHz 0.16-2 GeV

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Project-X: Research Opportunities

Proposal: Develop Nuclear Energy Plan for Project-X

• Project-X accelerator should be considered as a demonstration machine to address all most all the key issues for many applications including Nuclear Energy: Transmutation and ADS.

• It should be considered as a High Power Proton Accelerator demonstration project.

• We propose to develop a comprehensive program to address the Nuclear Energy Application We need about 1 FTE support (0.5 at Fermilab and 0.5 at

ANL) for at least one year.

7th UofC, ANL and Fermilab Collaboration Meeting6

Nuclear ApplicationDisposal of Spent Nuclear Fuels

Application Objectives–Dispose of the spent nuclear fuel by eliminating its

radiotoxicity

Application Technology–Utilize accelerator driven system for transmuting the minor

actinides (MAs) of USA spent nuclear fuel inventory –The accumulated USA spent nuclear inventory is ~70000

tons by 2015. The MAs is ~40 tons.

Key Application Issues–Neutron Source (Concept and target performance)–Subcritical Assembly (Concept, Performance, Reactivity

Control, Feedback, Safety Issues)

Argonne-UChicago-Fermilab 7th Collaboration Meeting, Monday June 7, 2010. Yousry Gohar (ANL)

Possible Experiments Addressing the Key IssuesUtilizing the 0.6 to 1 GeV CW Proton Beam

Spallation Target Experiment– Window material selection, concept, radiation damage, and lifetime– Target material selection (solid or liquid), concept, cooling– Removal of spallation products from liquid target– Validation of the target concept performance

Transmutation Experiment– Transmutation rates of the MAs and the long-lived fission products– Decay heat of the transmuted/burned MAs

Subcritical Assembly Experiment– Reactivity measurements, control methods, and feedback techniques

Shielding Concept– Proton beam and subcritical assembly shielding concept

Argonne-UChicago-Fermilab 7th Collaboration Meeting, Monday June 7, 2010. Yousry Gohar (ANL)