Concept of an Accelerator-Driven Advanced Nuclear Energy System

Abstract

The utilization of clean energy is a matter of primary importance for sustainable development as well as a vital approach for solving worldwide energy-related issues. If the low utilization rate of nuclear fuel, nuclear proliferation, and insufficient nuclear safety can be solved, nuclear fission energy could be used as a sustainable and low-carbon clean energy form for thousands of years, providing steady and base-load electrical resources. To address these challenges, we propose an accelerator-driven advanced nuclear energy system (ADANES), consisting of a burner system and a fuel recycle system. In ADANES, the ideal utilization rate of nuclear fuel will be >95%, and the final disposal of nuclear waste will be minimized. The design of a high-temperature ceramic reactor makes the burner system safer. Part of fission products (FPs) are removed during the simple reprocessing in the fuel recycle system, significantly reducing the risks of nuclear proliferation of nuclear technology and materials. The ADANES concept integrates nuclear waste transmutation, nuclear fuel breeding, and safety power production, with an ideal closed loop operation of nuclear fission energy, constituting a major innovation of great potential interest for future energy applications.

Conceptual study of an accelerator-driven ceramic fast reactor with long-term operation

“…If ADCFR is combined with simple high‐dry reprocessing, a fully closed nuclear‐energy system becomes feasible. It belongs to ADANES, which is an ideal clean nuclear‐fission energy system. During reprocessing, only excluding part of the fission products without the enrichment of depleted uranium, spent fuel, and natural uranium, the radioactivity of final waste can be greatly reduced.…”

“…The ADCFR consists of a high‐power superconducting linear accelerator, a spallation‐target, and a ceramic‐coolant fast reactor. This system is based on the existing accelerator‐driven system (ADS) and is the burner system in accelerator‐driven advanced nuclear energy system (ADANES) . The neutrons needed to sustain the reactor's nuclide fission are produced by a particle accelerator, which produces more neutrons via spallation reaction.…”

“…Furthermore, an optimized operation mode can reduce the construction cost associated with the accelerator. With respect to ADANES, ADCFR combined with simple high‐dry reprocessing could represent a closed nuclear‐energy system, which improves the fuel utilization rate significantly and also reduces nuclear waste. Finally, according to an economic evaluation at MIT, the economy of an ADCFR should not be worse than a conventional fast reactor. Application and location region: Because of the lower cost of the produced heat and the higher operating temperature compared to conventional light‐water reactors, this system can be used for a wide range of applications.…”

“…Furthermore, the above requirements suggest a division into 3 categories . Material selection is the first category, which includes materials, exhibiting good neutron‐related properties, permit reliable engineering, and facilitate excellent thermal hydraulic performance at high temperatures and in environments with strong radiation.…”

Observed proton beam induced disruption of a tungsten powder sample at CERN

“…A continuously flowing fluidized tungsten powder jet [1] has been proposed as a potential target technology for future high energy physics facilities, such as a Neutrino Factory [2]. A gravity driven granular flowing tungsten target has been proposed for the neutron source of an accelerator driven subcritical reactor [3]. The Neutrino Factory concept requires a high power proton beam to interact with a target to generate mesons (pions) and eventually a beam of neutrinos through lepton (muon) decays.…”