Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 51 / Number 2T / February 2007 / Pages 65-68
Technical Paper / Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement
In the last decade, a great progress was made in developing projects of sub-critical fission systems dedicated to transmutation of nuclear waste. In contrast to a fission reactor, such a device is fed with neutrons from an outer source in order to sustain a steady-state power generation. The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics has made the proposal of a powerful 14 MeV neutron source based on a gas dynamic trap (GDT). This neutron source is primarily thought as irradiation facility for fusion material research. So, the question raises, whether the GDT based neutron source could be a candidate to efficiently drive such a sub-critical system too. The contribution pursues this question using results of first neutron transport calculations. The calculations were made for a simplified model of an actinides burner, which has been developed for an international benchmark exercise performed under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Important parameters of the burner are compared for two cases - when driven by a spallation or by the GDT neutron source. From this comparison some advices for further improvements of the GDT neutron source are concluded.