Mathematical Experiments with Electronuclear Systems

Abstract

The properties of accelerator driven subcritical systems (ADS) with several types of nuclear fuel are investigated by means of the Monte Carlo method. The neutron yield and the heat production are calculated for the systems with various levels of subcriticity. Our mathematical experiments corroborate the safety and high economy of the equipment. They can be used for utilization of stored pure weapon grade and “technical” plutonium provided by nuclear power plants. The calculations also suggest that from the viewpoint of economics, electronuclear systems with proton energies equal to several hundreds MeV can be more profitable than the systems with energies of 1–2 GeV. We show that even the existing accelerators with current densities of the order of several μA allow one to build electronuclear systems with a heat power of ∼ 1–100 kW which is quite enough for the majority of experiments. The accuracy of the existing Monte Carlo codes is discussed shortly.