Criticality Search of an Accelerator Driven System Using the ANET Code

One of the most important safety parameters taken into consideration during the design and actual operation of a nuclear reactor is its control rods adjustment to reach criticality. Concerning the conventional nuclear systems, the specification of their rods’ position through the utilization of neutronics codes, deterministic or stochastic, is considered nowadays trivial. However, innovative nuclear reactor concepts such as the Accelerator Driven Systems require sophisticated simulation capabilities of the stochastic neutronics codes since they combine high energy physics, for the spallation-produced neutrons, with classical nuclear technology. ANET (Advanced Neutronics with Evolution and Thermal hydraulic feedback) is an under development stochastic neutronics code, able to cover the broad neutron energy spectrum involved in ADS systems and therefore capable of simulating conventional and hybrid nuclear reactors and calculating important reactor parameters. In this work, ANETS’s reliability to calculate the effective multiplication factor for three core configurations containing control rods of the Kyoto University Critical Assembly, an operating ADS, is examined. The ANET results successfully compare with results produced by well-established stochastic codes such as MCNP6.1.

Latest research progress for LBE coolant reactor of China initiative accelerator driven system project

China’s accelerator driven subcritical system(ADS)development has made significant progress during the past decade.With the successful construction and operation of the international prototype of ADS superconducting proton linac,the lead-based critical/subcritical zero-power facility VENUS-II and the comprehensive thermal-hydraulic and material test facilities for LBE(lead bismuth eutectic)coolant,China is playing a pivotal role in advanced steady-state operations toward the next step,the ADS project.The China initiative Accelerator Driven System(CiADS)is the next facility for China’s ADS program,aimed to bridge the gaps between the ADS experiment and the LBE cooled subcritical reactor.The total power of the CiADS will reach 10 MW.The CiADS engineering design was approved by Chinese government in 2018.Since then,the CiADS project has been fully transferred to the construction application stage.The subcritical reactor is an important part of the whole CiADS project.Currently,a pool-type LBE cooled fast reactor is chosen as the subcritical reactor of the CiADS.Physical and thermal experiments and software development for LBE coolant were conducted simultaneously to support the design and construction of the CiADS LBEcooled subcritical reactor.Therefore,it is necessary to introduce the efforts made in China in the LBE-cooled fast reactor to provide certain supporting data and reference solutions for further design and development for ADS.Thus,the roadmap of China’s ADS,the development process of the CiADS,the important design of the current CiADS subcritical reactor,and the efforts to build the LBE-cooled fast reactor are presented.

Monitoring method for neutron flux for a spallation target in an accelerator driven sub-critical system

In this paper, we study a monitoring method for neutron flux for the spaUation target used in an accelerator driven sub-critical （ADS） system, where a spallation target located vertically at the centre of a sub-critical core is bombarded vertically by high-energy protons from an accelerator. First, by considering the characteristics in the spatial variation of neutron flux from the spallation target, we propose a multi-point measurement technique, i.e. the spallation neutron flux should be measured at multiple vertical locations. To explain why the flux should be measured at multiple locations, we have studied neutron production from a tungsten target bombarded by a 250 MeV-proton beam with Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results indicate that the neutron flux at the central location is up to three orders of magnitude higher than the flux at lower locations. Secondly, we have developed an effective technique in order to measure the spallation neutron flux with a fission chamber （FC）, by establishing the relation between the fission rate measured by FC and the spallation neutron flux. Since this relation is linear for a FC, a constant calibration factor is used to derive the neutron flux from the measured fission rate. This calibration factor can be extracted from the energy spectra of spallation neutrons. Finally, we have evaluated the proposed calibration method for a FC in the environment of an ADS system. The results indicate that the proposed method functions very well.

On intense proton beam generation and transport in hollow cones

Proton generation,transport and interaction with hollow cone targets are investigated by means of two-dimensional PIC simulations.A scaled-down hollow cone with gold walls,a carbon tip and a curved hydrogen foil inside the cone has been considered.Proton acceleration is driven by a 10^(20) W·cm^(-2) and 1 ps laser pulse focused on the hydrogen foil.Simulations show an important surface current at the cone walls which generates a magnetic field.This magnetic field is dragged by the quasi-neutral plasma formed by fast protons and co-moving electrons when they propagate towards the cone tip.As a result,a tens of kT B z field is set up at the cone tip,which is strong enough to deflect the protons and increase the beam divergence substantially.We propose using heavy materials at the cone tip and increasing the laser intensity in order to mitigate magnetic field generation and proton beam divergence.

New concept for ADS spallation target: Gravity-driven dense granular flow target

For the Chinese-ADS project, to provide enough neutrons to drive the subcritical system, tens of MW spallation targets for the C-ADS are necessary. This is not an easy task. Here we propose a new concept for a gravity-driven dense granular flow target, in which heavy metal grains are chosen as the spallation target material. Compared with currently widely used targets, this conceptual design has advantages with regard to heat removal, thermal shock protection, neutron yield, radiotoxicity reduction, and convenient operation. The gravity-driven dense granular flow target has the potential to easily deal with these issues and to form a foundation for tens of MW spallation targets for cost-effective facilities. Preliminary simulations and experiments have been completed to support this conceptual design.

Electron pulse train accelerated by a linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam

A linearly polarized Laguerre–Gaussian(LP-LG)laser beam with a twist index l=−1 has field structure that fundamentally differs from the field structure of a conventional linearly polarized Gaussian beam.Close to the axis of the LP-LG beam,the longitudinal electric and magnetic fields dominate over the transverse components.This structure offers an attractive opportunity to accelerate electrons in vacuum.It is shown,using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations,that this scenario can be realized by reflecting an LP-LG laser off a plasma with a sharp density gradient.The simulations indicate that a 600 TW LP-LG laser beam effectively injects electrons into the beam during the reflection.The electrons that are injected close to the laser axis experience a prolonged longitudinal acceleration by the longitudinal laser electric field.The electrons form distinct monoenergetic bunches with a small divergence angle.The energy in the most energetic bunch is 0.29 GeV.The bunch charge is 6 pC and its duration is approximately 270 as.The divergence angle is just 0.57°(10 mrad).By using a linearly polarized rather than a circularly polarized Laguerre–Gaussian beam,our scheme makes it easier to demonstrate the electron acceleration experimentally at a high-power laser facility.