[en] A historical overview of transmutation ideas and praxis from antiquity to latest developments in advanced nuclear reactor systems is given. The transmutation of elements has long been a great puzzle in science from antiquity to Middle Ages, many alchemist’s unfulfilled dream, until Rutherford’s discovery of the artificial nuclear transformation of nitrogen into oxygen. Nuclear reactions, since then, lead to production of numerous new elements and isotopes, to the discovery of the nuclear fission, the nuclear chain reaction, and as a consequence, to the construction of nuclear reactors. Nowadays, new subcritical reactor systems, based on particle accelerators, the so called Accelerator Driven Systems or (ADS) are investigated and designed to produce safely and more effectively a clean nuclear energy.

[en] After an introduction to the theory of reliability, this paper focuses on a description of the linear proton accelerator proposed for the European ADS demonstration project. Design issues are discussed and examples of cases of fault tolerance are given. (author)

[en] The EUROTRANS project is an integrated project in the Sixth European Framework Program in the context of Partitioning and Transmutation. The objective of this project is to work towards an ETD (European Transmutation Demonstration) in a step-wise manner. The first step is to carry out an advanced design of a small-scale XT-ADS (eXperimental Transmutation in an Accelerator Driven System) for realisation in a short-term (about 10 years) as well as to accomplish a generic conceptual design of EFIT (European Facility for Industrial Transmutation) for realisation in the long-term. The MYRRHA-2005 design served as a starting basis for the XT-ADS. Many options have been revisited and the framework is now set up. While the MYRRHA-2005 design was still a conceptual design, the intention is to get at the end of the EUROTRANS project (March 2009) an advanced design of the XT-ADS, albeit a first advanced design. While the design work performed during the first years of the project (2005-2006) was mainly devoted to optimise and enhance the primary and secondary system configuration according to the suggestions and contributions of our industrial partners (Ansaldo Nucleare, Areva, Suez-Tractebel) within the DM1 (Domain 1 ^DESIGN⁾, the last year work objectives mainly consisted of (1) the release of the Remote Handling Design Catalogue for XT-ADS and (2) the formulation of the specification of the experimental devices according to the XT-ADS objectives and adapted to the actual XT-ADS core and core support structure design; (3) the detailed calculations of the main XT-ADS primary and secondary system components

[en] In order to reduce the volume and the radiotoxicity of the nuclear waste coming from the operation of existing pressurized water reactors, accelerator-driven systems (ADSs) have been envisioned. The Lead-Cooled (Pb) European Facility for Industrial-Scale Transmutation (EFIT) (Pb-EFIT) plant is the first ADS design that has been going into a rather detailed engineering level. It is a lead-cooled, 385-MW(thermal) ADS prototype for minor actinide (MA) transmutation designed to achieve an optimal MA destruction rate of ∼ 42 kg/TW.h(thermal). The spallation target unit is located in the center of the dia-grid where 800-MeV protons from the accelerator impinge on a free surface of lead exposed to vacuum. The core inlet temperature was set at 400 degrees C to assure a sufficiently large safety margin to lead freezing, and the core outlet temperature was limited to 480 degrees C to allow acceptable corrosion. The ferritic-martensitic 9% Cr steel T91 protected against corrosion with alumina FeCrAlY [GESA (Gepulste Elektronen Strahl Anlage) treatment]. The primary circuit is designed for effective natural circulation, i.e., relatively low pressure losses, and the design offers good protection for a heat removal system in case of a blackout accident. The EFIT plant is designed to have a low likelihood and a low degree of core damage, to eliminate the need for off-site emergency responses in case of a severe accident, to use an extensively reliable passive safety system to fulfill the safety functions, and to eliminate the need of alternating-current safety-grade power (no safety-grade diesel generator). Three systems contribute to the decay heat removal (DHR) function of Pb-EFIT: the steam generators, the direct reactor cooling system, and the isolation condenser system. The EFIT plant exhibits four primary pumps; eight steam generator units, each rated at 52 MW, provide heat removal under normal operation. On the secondary side, the water steam ensures a thermal efficiency of ∼ 40% with the superheated vapor secondary circuit, taking into account the electricity required by pumps (from both the primary circuit and the secondary circuits) but without deducing the power required for the accelerator. An estimate of the Pb-EFIT plant cost has been performed based mainly on experience and engineering judgment. A best estimate (base cost and contingency) of about 890 million of euros, with an overall uncertainty of 22%, has been found. (authors)

[en] The EUROTRANS project is an integrated project in the Sixth European Framework Program in the context of Partitioning and Transmutation. The objective of this project is the step-wise approach to a European Transmutation Demonstration. This project aims to deliver an advanced design of a small-scale Accelerator Driven System (ADS), XT-ADS, as well as the conceptual design of a European Facility for Industrial Transmutation (EFIT). The partners of this project accepted to use the so-called MYRRHA Draft-2 design file as a starting basis for the design of the short-term XT-ADS demonstration machine. Instead of starting from a blank page, this allowed optimising an existing design towards the needs of XT-ADS, and this within the accepted limits of the safety requirements. Many options have been revisited and the framework is now set up. The main two objectives of the XT-ADS facility are the following: to demonstrate the feasibility of the ADS concept and its performance as a multi-purpose irradiation facility. Special attention is paid to the possibility of testing fuel dedicated to transmutation of minor actinides and long-lived fission products. During the demonstration phase, the core will be loaded with MOX fuel in a clean core configuration. Since the XT-ADS must be a representative prototype, it has to operate at a reasonable power, a minimum of 50 MW_th was set in the objectives. After this phase, the core will house In-Pile-Sections of different types for irradiating material samples and new types of fuel pins. We aim to be able to provide irradiation conditions that are close to EFIT conditions so that XT-ADS can be used as a test-bed for EFIT parts

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[en] The present work aims at evaluating the behavior of neutron multiplicity in a spallation target using MCNPX simulations, focusing on its application in the MYRRHA reactor. We have studied the two types of spallation target proposed for the MYRRHA project, windowless and window- target, in order to compare them and find saturation boundaries. Some saturation boundaries were found and the windowless target proved to be as viable as the window-target. Each one produced nearly the same number of neutrons per incident proton. Using the concept of neutron cost, it was also observed that the optimum conditions on neutron production occur at about 1 GeV, for both target designs. (authors)

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[en] PEFP (Proton Engineering Frontier Project) is developing the KOMAC (Korea Multi-purpose Accelerator Complex) program that consists of 1GeV proton linac for an accelerator driven transmutation experiments, and applications in the industries and the basic science areas as Korean national research facility. In the 2nd phase, a 100MeV linac and several beam lines of 20MeV and 100MeV will be constructed, and several applications with high current proton beams, and an user program for future extension of the program are planned. For the 2nd phase, a DTL from 3MeV to 20MeV has been designed. It consists of 350MHz DTL cavities for CW operation and a 1MW RF source. The details of the DTL accelerating cavity design will be reported