Contribution of the Energy Amplifier to New Applications

Abstract Progress in particle accelerator technology makes it possible to use a proton accelerator to produce energy and to eliminate nuclear waste efficiently. The Energy Amplifier (EA), proposed by Carlo Rubbia and his group, is a subcritical fast neutron system driven by a proton accelerator. It is particularly attractive for destroying, through fission, transuranic elements produced by present nuclear reactors. The EA could also transform efficiently and at minimal cost long-lived fission fragments using the concept of Adiabatic Resonance Crossing (ARC) recently tested at CERN with the TARC experiment. The ARC concept can be extended to several other domains of application (production of radioactive isotopes for medicine and industry, neutron research applications, etc.).