BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Accelerator Driven Subcritical (ADS) fission is an interesting candidate basis for nuclear waste transmutation and for nuclear power generation. ADS can use either thorium or depleted uranium as fuel, operate below criticality, and consume rather than produce long-lived actinides. A case study with a hypothetical, but realistic nuclear core configuration is used to evaluate the performance requirements of the driver proton accelerator in terms of beam energy, beam current, duty factor, beam distribution delivered to the fission core, reliability, and capital and operating cost. Comparison between a CW IC and that of an SRF proton linac is evaluated. Future accelerator R&D required to improve each candidate accelerator design is discussed.
