ACCELERATOR-DRIVEN THORIUM-CYCLE FISSION: GREEN NUCLEAR POWER FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Conference Paper
Overview
Identity
Additional Document Info
Other
View All
Overview
abstract
In thorium-cycle fission, fast neutrons are used to transmute thorium to fissionable 233U and then stimulate fission. In accelerator-driven thorium-cycle fission (ADTC) the fast neutrons are produced by injecting a symmetric pattern of 7 energetic proton beams into a Pb spallation zone in the core. The fast neutrons are adiabatically moderated by the Pb so that they capture efficiently on 232Th, and fission heat is transferred via a convective Pb column above the core. The 7 proton beams are generated by afluxoupled stack of isochronous cyclotrons. ADTC offers a green solution to the Earth's energy needs: The core operates as a sub-critical pile and cannot melt down; it eats its own long-lived fission products; a GW ADTC core can operate with uniform power density for a 7-year fuel cycle without shuffcing fuel pins, and there are sufficient thorium reserves to run man's energy needs for the next 2000 years.
name of conference
Physics Beyond the Standard Models of Particles, Cosmology and Astrophysics