ThorEA - Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future.pdf

Appendix IV:
Current international ADSR R&D programmes
A4.1 Examples of recent and current international
R&D studies of ADSR systems and their components
Europe: EUROTRANS Project
A consortium of 29 partners (17 Universities represented by
ENEN) Working towards a reliable basis for the assessment of
the technical feasibility of transmutation by ADS and a first
estimate of cost.
Belgium: SCKCEN
MYRRHA is an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) under
development at Mol in Belgium. It aims to serve as a basis
for the European XT-ADS (eXperimental demonstration of
Transmutation in ADS) and to provide protons and neutrons
for various R&D applications. It consists of a proton
accelerator delivering a 600 MeV – 2.5 mA (or 350 MeV - 5
mA proton beam) to a liquid Pb-Bi spallation target that in
turn couples to a Pb-Bi cooled, subcritical fast nuclear core.
The project started in 1997 and the aim is to have MYRRHA
fully operational around 2022-2023. On March 4th, 2010
Belgian Prime Minister Leterme announced that the Belgian
government will give its go ahead for the MYRRHA project,
supporting 40% (M€384) of the total budget (M€960).
Switzerland: Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)
MEGAPIE (Megawatt Pilot Target Experiment) is an initiative
launched by Commisariat à l’Energie Atomique, Cadarache
(France) and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Germany) in
collaboration with Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland), to
demonstrate, in an international collaboration, the feasibility
of a liquid lead bismuth target for spallation facilities at a
beam power level of 1 MW. It has served to demonstrate the
feasibility, potential for licensing, and long-term operation
under realistic conditions, of a high-power spallation target.
The MEGAPIE target has been tested using the world’s highest
proton current cyclotron at PSI. This cyclotron delivers a
proton energy of 590 MeV and a continuous current of 1.8 mA,
currently being upgraded to 2 mA. It is used for a large range
of scientific research tools, the most prominent one being
a spallation neutron source (SINQ) with its large number of
different user facilities. This facility is designed as a neutron
source mainly for research with extracted beams of thermal
and cold neutrons, but hosts also facilities for isotope
production and neutron activation analysis.
Germany: Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK)
The FZK is investigating an ADS for transmutation of minor
actinides and long lived fission products The study considers
core design, neutronics, safety systems materials and corrosion
Experiments are underway to study corrosion mechanisms,
surface treatment, oxygen sensor development and oxygen
control systems. Further experiments are planned to study
thermohydraulics under normal and decay heat conditions.
54 Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future
Sweden: European Spallation Source (ESS)
ESS is a proposed 5 MW spallation source with extremely
high flux and pulses of 2 ms. ESS, which has been highest
priority of almost all neutron centres and scientists since the
early nineties, will be the world’s leading neutron source,
providing a combination of the highest neutron intensity
(factors of 10 to several 100s compared to current and
planned facilities) and novel instruments, to form a unique
tool for research into structure, characteristics, functions
and dynamics of matter. The initial long pulse configuration
of ESS provides maximum complementarity to existing and
the largest instrument innovation potential. Its unique
upgradeability guarantees a long-term world leading status.
ESS will offer new modes of operation and user support to
facilitate industrial and academic exploitation of neutron
beams. Authors of this report have played a leading role in
the ESS R&D and political programme for almost two decades.
Japan: Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC)
JNC is assessing the prospects for the commercialization of a
prototype fast breeder reactor. A promising candidate is a Pb-Bi
cooled, modular system with natural circulation JNC is currently
working on corrosion phenomena in Pb-Bi melts, assessing
corrosion resistant methodologies, performing additional
research on advanced alloys for Pb-Bi cooled systems.
Japan: Central Research Institute of the Electric Power
Industry (CREIPI)
CREIPI is engaged in R&D on the Pb alloy cooled fast reactor
concept and ADSR systems for processing of transuranic waste.
Studies are being conducted into feasibility of FBR systems with
innovative Pb-Bi heat exchanger, direct contact heat transfer
between Pb-Bi and water, fundamental aspects of liquid metalwater
vapor explosions and system thermohydraulics.
Japan: High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)
The world’s first proton FFAG accelerator, the Proof-of-
Principle FFAG (POP-FFAG) was built at KEK in Japan in 2000.
At approximately the same time, researchers recognized that
FFAG accelerators can feature rapid acceleration with large
momentum acceptance. These are exactly the properties
required for the production of medical proton beams and for
accelerator-driven sub-critical reactors (ADSR) for nuclear
energy and for muon acceleration. To investigate this
potential, a team at KEK developed the first prototype of a
large-scale proton FFAG accelerator. In 2004, it successfully
accelerated a proton beam up to 150MeV with a repetition
rate of 100 Hz. Since then, intensive studies and discussions
have taken place and various novel ideas have emerged that
have led ultimately to new application projects for FFAG
accelerators at several institutes in Japan.
A team at the University of Kyoto has developed a proton
FFAG accelerator for basic research on ADSR experiments,
whereby beam is delivered to the existing critical assembly
of the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI).
The whole machine is a cascade of three FFAG rings. The beam
was recently successfully accelerated up to 100 MeV and the
first ADSR experiments began in 2009, but only at very small
(nanoamp) currents.