Accelerator and Target Technology for Accelerator Driven Transmutation and Energy Production

1.1 History of Accelerator Driven System Activities Since the early 1990’s, accelerator driven systems (ADS) – subcritical assemblies driven by high power proton accelerators through a spallation target which is neutronically coupled to the core – have been proposed for addressing certain missions in advanced nuclear fuel cycles. Institutes throughout the world have conducted numerous programs evaluating the role of ADS in nuclear waste transmutation and energy production. In 1995, the National Research Council (NRC) issued a report on transmutation technologies [1], which included an evaluation of one ADS concept that was under study at that time: a large-scale system that proposed using a ~100-MW accelerator to drive a thermal, molten salt subcritical core. The NRC recognized the numerous complexities associated with the system, including the fact that, at that time, much of the high-power accelerator technology required for that ADS system had yet to be demonstrated. Consequently, the NRC report did not look favorably upon ADS.