Project-X Accelerator and Proposed Accelerator Requirements for the

Transmutation Demonstration

Shekhar Mishra2 Project-X

(Yousry Gohar1, David Johnson2, Todd Johnson2) 1 Argonne National Laboratory

2 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Project-X: Nuclear Energy Application

• The recent advancements in the Superconducting Radio Frequency accelerator technology make the application of High Intensity Proton Accelerator for the Nuclear Energy feasible.– Fermilab Project-X will provide an unprecedented experimental

and demonstration facility in the United States.

What is Established ?• These studies have addressed

– The current status of the accelerator and target technology

– The technical requirements for Accelerator Driven System (ADS)

– The R&D needed in both accelerator and target technology

• These recent studies have established that– There have been fundamental developments in the

accelerator technology that could make the ADS possible.

– The accelerator technology is ready to support a demonstration project. • Reliability of the accelerator

Issue: Transmutation of Spent fuel

• An accelerator-driven subcritical system is ideally suited to burn the most problematic isotopes in spent fuel.– Spent fuel would roughly

take 300,000 years to reach the radiotoxicity of natural uranium

– Spent fuel processing (removal of PU and U) followed by transmutation of “Minor Actinides”using a Accelerator Based System can reduce the time to about 500 years.

Mission Need: Transmutation

• The issue of high radiotoxicity and lifetime of spent nuclear fuel is a challenge facing the nation today.– Either fast reactors or subcritical accelerator-driven systems

can be used for the transmutation of the spent nuclear fuel from the US light water reactors.

• The near-term problem is that the US industry is unlikely to build enough fast reactors for the utilization of the spent fuel. – Hence it is crucial to develop alternate technologies using

accelerators. • It is proposed that

– spent nuclear fuel processing followed by accelerator based transmutation could significantly reduce the lifetime and amount of nuclear waste the United States has to put in geological disposal.

– At the same time this process could also be used to produce clean electricity (nuclear energy).

Mission Need: Material R&D• The nuclear reactor design

(fission or fusion reactors) requires better understanding and development of the materials and structure – Capable of functioning

reliably for a long time in environments with high temperatures, reactive chemicals, high stresses and high radiation.

– The steady-state operations of fission and fusion reactors can be well simulated by the radiation conditions from a CW proton linac.

Need: Beam Energy and Power

Neutron yield as a function of proton energy for one set of target and moderator condition

Beam Energy 1-2 GeV

Beam power needed to drive a 0.8 GW ADS sub-critical core as a function of ksrc, the effective neutron multiplication factor.

Beam Power 1 MW

Accelerator RequirementBeam Parameter Parameter value or range for

the Transmutation Demonstration Experiment

Beam Power 1-2 MW

Beam Energy 1-2 GeV

Beam Time Structure Continuous Wave

Beam trips (1<t<10 Sec) < 5000 per year

Beam trips (10 sec < t < 5 mins)

< 2500 per year

Beam trips ( t > 5 mins) < 50 per year

Availability 50%

Status: Beam Trip Rate

• Present operating accelerators were not designed for low trip rates. – Ten to Hundred fold improvements are needed in beam trip rate.

Project-X: Nuclear Application

• We propose this as a demonstration experimental transmutation program with the proposed Fermilab SRF proton accelerator Project-X.– Beam Energy 1-2 GeV– Beam Power 1 MWatt

• The program would include demonstrations of – Reliable accelerator technology development and

demonstration, – Design, development and operation of spallation target– Material R&D for nuclear Energy application– Demonstration of the transmutation of spent nuclear fuel from

nuclear power reactors.

• Joint facility with Nuclear Physics Research

Project-X: Reference Design

• 3 GeV CW linac; 3 MW beam power– Flexible provision for beam requirements supporting multiple users

• 3-8 GeV acceleration via a (1.3 GHz) superconducting pulsed linac• Existing Recycler/Main Injector support the neutrino program• Reference Design Report released on October 31

CW Linac Technologies

b=0.11 b=0.22 b=0.4 b=0.61 b=0.9

325 MHz SSR2.5-160 MeV

b=1.0

1.3 GHz Elliptical 2-3 GeV

650 MHz Elliptical 0.16-2 GeV

Section Freq Energy (MeV) Cav/mag/CM Type

SSR0 (bG=0.11) 325 2.5-10 26 /26/1 SSR, solenoid

SSR1 (bG=0.22) 325 10-32 18 /18/ 2 SSR, solenoid

SSR2 (bG=0.4) 325 32-160 44 /22/4 SSR, solenoid

LB 650 (bG=0.61) 650 160-520 42 /42/7 5-cell elliptical, doublet

HB 650 (bG=0.9) 650 520-2000 96 /24/12 5-cell elliptical, doublet

ILC 1.3 (bG=1.0) 1300 2000-3000 72 /9 /9 9-cell elliptical, quad

Project X: Goals• Construct a 3 GeV continuous-wave superconducting H- linac,

capable of delivering 1 mA of average beam current.– Supports rare processes and nuclear physics programs– Can support nuclear energy applications with beam energies <2 GeV

• Construct a 3-8 GeV pulsed linac, utilizing an ILC-style RF system, with total beam power delivered to 8 GeV of 300 kW.– Required for the neutrino program– Establishes a path toward a muon based facility

• Upgrade the Recycler and Main Injector to provide ≥ 2 MW to a neutrino production target at 60-120 GeV.– Supports the long baseline neutrino program

• Simultaneous operations of the rare processes and neutrino programs

• Expand physics opportunities– http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/Longrange/Steering_Public/workshop-

physics-5th.html

Schematic Layout: NE/NP Area

Mission: Address Key Technology Issues

Technology Demonstration Facility

Mission: Technology Demonstration

Green: Ready, Yellow: May be ready, Red: More R&D

Summary• Fermilab has proposed the construction of a High

Power Continuous Wave proton SRF linac (Project-X) for its high energy physics program.

• Fermilab is exploring the possibility to expand the application of Project-X linac for other applications– Nuclear Physics– Nuclear Energy

• Recent studies suggests that Project-X linac can be used as a technology demonstration project for nuclear energy application with a focus on demonstrating– Accelerator technology– Target technology– Material development