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Utilisation and Reliability of High Power Proton Accelerators

Workshop Proceedings, Mol, Belgium, 6-9 May 2007

image of Utilisation and Reliability of High Power Proton Accelerators

Accelerator-driven systems (ADS) are being considered for their potential use in the transmutation of radioactive waste. The performance of such hybrid nuclear systems depends to a large extent on the specification and reliability of high power accelerators, as well as the integration of the accelerator with spallation targets and sub-critical systems. At present, much R&D work is still required in order to demonstrate the desired capability of the system as a whole.

Accelerator scientists and reactor physicists from around the world gathered at an NEA workshop to discuss issues of common interest and to present the most recent achievements in their research. Discussions focused on accelerator reliability; target, window and coolant technology; sub-critical system design and ADS simulations; safety and control of ADS; and ADS experiments and test facilities. These proceedings contain the technical papers presented at the workshop as well as summaries of the working group discussions held. They will be of particular interest to scientists working on ADS development as well as on radioactive waste management issues in general.

English

Accelerator Reliability

Nuclear Energy Agency

The Spallation Neutron Source accelerator complex includes a superconducting RF linac that accelerates a proton beam from 186 MeV to 1 000 MeV, at a design power level of 1.5 MW. It includes 81 independently powered cavities. One of the advantages of the many independently powered cavities is rapid fault recovery in the event of a problem with a single cavity or any of its subsystems. We have developed a system to automatically calculate the new downstream cavity phase set-points, in the event of an upstream cavity failure (or any change in its setting). The system requires an initial setting of each cavity using a beam measurement, and uses a model to predict changes in cavity arrival times due to cavity failures. It has been successfully tested with up to 20 simultaneous changes in cavity amplitude and phase set-points, and is used regularly. The principles behind the scheme and results will be presented.

English

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