Nuclear Waste Transmutation in Subcritical Reactors Driven by Target-Distributed Accelerators

Abstract

A radioactive waste transmutation system based extensively on existing nuclear power technology is presented. By replacing the control rods with neutron sources, we could maintain good power distribution and perform long-lived waste burning in high flux subcritical reactors. The design is based on a small pressurized water reactor, fission electric cell (FEC), target-distributed accelerator (TDA) and power monitoring system with in-core gamma-ray detectors, now under development in several countries. The TDA, in which an FEC electric field compensates for lost beam energy in the target, offers a new approach to obtain large neutron fluxes. The analysis takes into consideration a wide range of TDA design aspects including the wave model of observed relativistic phenomena, in-core microwave power source, the FEC with a multistage collector (anode) and layered cathode.