Innovative Accelerator Technology for Accelerator Driven Subcritical Reactors

加速器驱动亚临界反应堆的创新加速器技术

• 批准号: EP/F028121/1
• 负责人: Roger Barlow
• 金额: $ 18.14万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FF028121%2F1
• 关键词: Innovative; Accelerator; Technology; Driven; Subcritical

Nuclear power currently produces 20% of our electricity, yet within 15 years most of the UK's nuclear powerstations will have closed. The ADS system has the potential to fill the gap of carbon-free nuclear power stations with a safer, cheaper, more sustainable form of nuclear power, for the benefit of the consumer and the environment. The ns-FFAG accelerator could be a key factor in making ADS reactors viable.In the 2007 Energy White Paper the UK government suggested that to ignore nuclear power, one of the currently more cost effective low-carbon options , would be to increase the risk of failing to meet our long term carbon reduction goal. However although nuclear power has a zero carbon footprint, its public perception is coloured by issues of safety, the radiotoxicity of its waste, and its links to proliferation.A far safer alternative to conventional uranium or plutonium fuelled critical nuclear reactors is the accelerator driven sub-critical (ADS) reactor. Not only can such a reactor be fuelled by non-enriched thorium, which is 4 times more plentiful than uranium, it both breeds and burns its own fuel and does not produce plutonium as part of the fuel cycle. Most importantly, because the reactor is subcritical the nuclear chain reaction must be fed from an outside source of neutrons, in this case provided by accelerated protons or heavying ions chipping (or spalling) neutrons from a spallation target inside the reactor itself. The accelerator therefore plays the part of the control rods in a conventional reactor with the significant difference that the accelerator, and hence the reactor, can be switched off instantaneously rendering the reactor entirely safe. In addition the amount of long-lived nuclear waste from an ADS is considerably less than that from a conventional reactor. Moreover, the surplus neutrons produced by the spallation process can be utilised to burn, transmute and render safe the waste from conventional reactors. ADS reactors therefore provide a safe, environmentally friendly and sustainable option to conventional nuclear power.The accelerator itself is a key to such a reactor. The power to run it must not outweigh the power generated. It must be extremely safe and reliable, easily operated and not be susceptible to beam trips (which place unnecessary thermal and therefore engineering loads on the reactor core). Current cyclotron, synchrotron and linear accelerators are not entirely suitable or sufficently powerful for the task. However as part of the CONFORM project of the British Accelerator Science and Radiation Oncology Consortium (BASROC) we are developing and prototyping an entirely new type of accelerator - the so called non-scaling fixed field alternating gradient (ns-FFAG) accelerator- which is simpler, more reliable, and consumes less power than conventional accelerators.The ns-FFAG may well prove to be an ideal, compact and cost effective driver for an ADS reactor, and the programme we propose here will set out to explore this possibility. We will employ a postdoctoral research assistant to work along side the BASROC CONFORM team. The PDRA will evaluate the operational parameters necesssary to enable a ns-FFAG to drive an ADS system, and will also have the opportunity of testing the parameters using our ns-FFAG prototype. Ultimately we hope to arrive at a functional design that can be costed. We will use this to get the nuclear industry interested in developing the project further. Although ADS reactors are currently under investigation in Europe, US, Japan, China, India and Australia, there is little or no ADS effort in the UK. Our project will not only help to bring the UK up to speed in ADS technology, if successful it will also bring a far safer form of nucler power much closer to realisation.

核能目前占英国电力的20%，但在15年内，英国大部分核电站将关闭。ADS系统有可能以更安全、更便宜、更可持续的核能形式填补无碳核电站的差距，从而造福消费者和环境。在2007年能源白色文件中，英国政府建议，忽视核能，目前更具成本效益的低碳选择之一，将增加无法实现我们的长期碳减排目标的风险。然而，尽管核能的碳足迹为零，但公众对核能的看法却受到安全问题、核废料的放射性毒性及其与核扩散的联系的影响。加速器驱动次临界（ADS）反应堆是传统铀或钚燃料临界核反应堆的一种更安全的替代方案。这种反应堆不仅可以用非浓缩钍（比铀丰富4倍）作为燃料，而且它既可以增殖又可以燃烧自己的燃料，而且在燃料循环中不会产生钚。最重要的是，由于反应堆是次临界的，核链式反应必须从外部中子源供给，在这种情况下，由加速的质子或重离子从反应堆本身内部的溅射靶上切下（或剥落）中子来提供。因此，加速器在常规反应堆中起到控制棒的作用，其显著区别在于，加速器以及因此反应堆可以被瞬时切断，从而使反应堆完全安全。此外，ADS产生的长寿命核废料数量大大少于传统反应堆。此外，由溅射过程产生的剩余中子可以用来燃烧、嬗变和使传统反应堆的废物安全。因此，ADS反应堆为传统核能提供了一种安全、环保和可持续的选择，加速器本身就是这种反应堆的关键。运行它的功率不得超过产生的功率。它必须非常安全可靠，易于操作，不易受到束流跳闸（这会给反应堆堆芯带来不必要的热负荷和工程负荷）的影响。目前的回旋加速器，同步加速器和线性加速器并不完全适合或足够强大的任务。然而，作为英国加速器科学和放射肿瘤学联盟（BASROC）的CONFORM项目的一部分，我们正在开发和原型设计一种全新类型的加速器-所谓的非缩放固定场交变梯度（ns-FFAG）加速器-它比传统加速器更简单，更可靠，消耗更少的功率。ns-FFAG很可能被证明是一种理想的加速器，紧凑和具有成本效益的驱动器的ADS反应堆，我们在这里提出的方案将着手探索这种可能性。我们将聘请一名博士后研究助理沿着与BASROC CONFORM团队合作。PDRA将评估ns-FFAG驱动ADS系统所需的操作参数，并将有机会使用我们的ns-FFAG原型测试参数。最终我们希望达到一个可以计算成本的功能设计。我们将利用这一点来吸引核工业对进一步开发该项目的兴趣。虽然ADS反应堆目前正在欧洲、美国、日本、中国、印度和澳大利亚进行调查，但英国很少或根本没有ADS工作。我们的项目不仅将有助于英国加快ADS技术的发展，如果成功的话，它还将使一种更安全的核能形式更接近实现。

项目成果

ACCELERATOR DRIVEN SYSTEMS FOR ENERGY PRODUCTION AND

用于能源生产和发电的加速器驱动系统

• 发表时间: 2008
• 作者: C Bungau

Reactor Design Studies For An Accelerator Driven System

加速器驱动系统的反应堆设计研究

• 发表时间: 2009
• 作者: C Bungau