ThorEA - Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future.pdf

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Chapter 4: Value Capture and IP: from ADSRs to Medicine and beyond continued 4.7 Technological opportunities and benefits available in other fields Globally there are over 15,000 particle accelerators in applications (cancer therapy and isotope production). operation. Only one hundred or so of these are used in Although the research and development programme outlined fundamental Phase physics I applications, Phase i.e. II in the field with which Phase III in this report has, as its final goal, a fully functional thorium- they are most LOKI commonly associated. FREA Indeed accelerators are THORfuelled ADSR power station, the spin-offs, synergies, found in areas as diverse as manufacturing industries (e.g. opportunities and benefits to both related and unrelated ion beam implantation and lithography) through to medical technological areas are manifold (see, e.g. Figure 13). Phase I LOKI Build 35mA, 35MeV injector Transferable accelerator knowhow Skilled workforce Phase II FREA Build 300-400MeV accelerator Figure 13. Benefits from the ADSR research programme along the experimental path are multiple 2010 2013 2017 2025 36 Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future Medical applications Accelerator IP Phase III THOR Design and Construction of 1Gev accelerator Exports Thorium fuel technology Delivery of ADSR Driver 2010 2013 2017 2025 Thorium–ADSR: Sustainable low CO 2 energy ahead of GEN IV reactors
4.7.1 Medical applications Both ADSR systems and medical facilities for proton and heavy ion cancer therapy require particle beams of similar energies. The principal differences, however, are that ADSR accelerators must produce a much higher power (i.e. higher current) proton beam, but do not require quite the flexibility and delicacy in proton extraction as the medical accelerators. IP that addresses the handling of high currents therefore will not spill into the medical sector, whereas that concerned with reliability and, especially, with beam monitoring may well do so. For medical applications it is of paramount importance to know what current (and therefore patient dose) is being delivered, and the diagnostic instrumentation to be developed for ADSR and therapy accelerators are similar. 4.7.2 Spallation physics High intensity proton beams coupled to spallation targets are a highly efficient route to producing intense neutron beams. STFC’s ISIS has been at the vanguard of this technology since 1985, producing some of the world’s most powerful beams for studies of the structure and dynamics of matter. In 1994 The OECD Megascience Forum predicted a neutron drought, and later recommended the construction of MW class spallation sources (rather than advanced nuclear reactors) in each of the world’s regions. The US and Japan have both responded to this call and are currently commissioning the $1bn 1.5MW SNS and 1MW J-PARC facility respectively. The US already plans an upgrade to 3MW, whilst Europe is still debating its 5MW 1.3 b€ European Spallation Source (ESS) to be sited in Lund, Sweden: both require accelerator and spallation technology not far removed from the planned ADSR driver/target system discussed here. The technology developed as part of this programme could dramatically reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of such spallation sources opening the way for much wider global deployment of this detailed non-destructive fine analysis of materials and their functionality in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, pharmacology, geophysics and even archaeology. 4.7.3 Transmutation research The management of radioactive waste is a key issue in the public’s perception of nuclear power. The belief that public acceptance may be more easily obtained if the isolation time required for the decay of high level nuclear waste can be reduced to the order of a few hundred years has motivated much research into the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) of such waste. It is in principle possible to reduce the radiotoxic lifetimes of important fission products and actinide wastes by transmuting them into short-lived or stable nuclei in a fission reactor or an ADSR. Potentially this would obviate the need for geological disposal of nuclear waste arising from commercial power generation and from nuclear weapons programmes. The main arguments in favour of P&T are that: by burning actinides the long-term requirements of final disposal stores are much reduced both in terms of volume and timescale, with both economic and public acceptance benefits; the minor actinide waste that undergoes fission becomes an additional source of energy; by closing the fuel cycle and recycling the major actinides (U and Pu) and Th much greater use is made of the world’s U and Th resources. The main arguments against P&T are that: the inclusion of highly radioactive transuranics makes fuel fabrication more difficult and hazardous; many of the technologies and materials involved are proliferation sensitive; although transmutation reduces the volumes of high level nuclear waste, it increases the volumes of medium and low level waste. A number of research programmes investigating transmutation using accelerator-driven systems have been established, including the European Framework EUROTRANS project, the OMEGA programme in Japan and the Accelerator-Driven Transmutation of Waste (ATW) programme in the USA (Appendix IV). Accelerator-driven transmutation appears to offer the potential to yield higher burn-ups than those achievable in fast reactors and to transmute actinides more quickly. Although much work has been done in this area there still remains much to do. Most of the transmutation research to date has focused on the U-Pu fuel cycle, rather than transmutation within the context of the Th-U cycle. There are currently no facilities capable of performing integrated testing of an accelerator-driven spallation target and a subcritical multiplication system at real power. However, there are plans for such a facility in France and elsewhere. The R&D programme described here would provide a facility for the demonstration of an integrated system performance and an appropriate combination of high-energy protons, spallation neutrons and fission neutrons for testing fuels and materials. There is scope for new IP to arise from the more detailed study of transmutation as part of a closed Th-U fuel cycle and from the experimental development and demonstration of the technology. A report prepared by: the thorium energy amplifier association 37
Page 1 and 2: TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE NUCLEAR FUTU
Page 3 and 4: A report prepared by: the thorium e
Page 5 and 6: Appendices: Appendix I: ADSR Accele
Page 7 and 8: Executive Summary Recent developmen
Page 9 and 10: This report is structured as follow
Page 11 and 12: Thorium presents numerous advantage
Page 13 and 14: Operating reactors 500 40 450 400 3
Page 15 and 16: 1.5 The potential global market for
Page 19 and 20: 2.3 Minimizing the economic cost of
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 3: An R&D Programme to secu
Page 25 and 26: Phase III: THOR Successful completi
Page 27 and 28: 3.6 Private Investment and construc
Page 31 and 32: Case Study 2: Letter of support fro
Page 33 and 34: 4.3 The patent landscape Categoriza
Page 35: 4.6 Future opportunities facilitate
Page 39 and 40: 4.7.5 From megatons to megawatts: W
Page 41 and 42: For an operational lifetime of 40 y
Page 43 and 44: 5.2 Inward investment The delivery
Page 45 and 46: Chapter 6: The way forward In this
Page 49 and 50: A1.3 Accelerator reliability Accele
Page 51 and 52: Estimated thorium resources by coun
Page 53 and 54: FBTR, India: India’s first fast p
Page 55 and 56: Japan: Mitsui Engineering & Ship Bu
Page 57 and 58: EUROTRANS has proposed a route to a
Page 59 and 60: thorium oxide mixed fuels is access
Page 61 and 62: Appendix VIII: An historical UK per
Page 63 and 64: Bibliography Bryan, A. C. (2009). J
Page 65 and 66: LBE - Lead-Bismuth Eutectic LEU - L
Page 67 and 68: Q4. Early investment in accelerator
Page 69 and 70: Q11. ThorEA focus upon FFAG technol
Page 71: William J. Nuttall is a University

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