| Title |
Mu*STAR: A Modular Accelerator-Driven Subcritical Reactor Design |
| Authors |
- R.P. Johnson, R.J. Abrams, M.A. Cummings, J.D. Lobo, M. Popovic, T.J. Roberts
Muons, Inc, Illinois, USA
|
| Abstract |
Mu*STAR is an accelerator-driven molten-salt sub-critical reactor based on recent superconducting RF technological breakthroughs that allow a highly efficient and powerful proton accelerator to drive a spallation target inside a graphite-moderated, thermal-spectrum reactor. The additional spallation neutrons can be used to overcome the absorption of neutrons by fission products to allow a deeper burn than is possible with critical reactor designs. Simulations have shown that as much as seven times the energy that was extracted from used fuel from light water reactors can be produced by this method before the accelerator demands significant power from the reactor. Once the fuel rods have been converted from oxide ceramics to fluoride salts, in a process that is proliferation resistant (not chemical reprocessing), the fuel can be burned for centuries without increasing its volume while reducing its radio-toxicity. Our 2017 GAIN voucher grant supported studies by ORNL, SRNL, and INL to design and cost a Fuel Processing Plant to convert used nuclear fuel into the molten-salt fuel for Mu*STAR. Based on those studies, it seems possible to build Mu*STAR systems on existing sites where used fuel is stored, convert it to fluoride salts, and use it to provide affordable carbon-free electricity for centuries.
|
| Paper |
download THPMP048.PDF [1.660 MB / 3 pages] |
| Export |
download ※ BibTeX
※ LaTeX
※ Text/Word
※ RIS
※ EndNote |
| Conference |
IPAC2019 |
| Series |
International Particle Accelerator Conference (10th) |
| Location |
Melbourne, Australia |
| Date |
19-24 May 2019 |
| Publisher |
JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Editorial Board |
Mark Boland (UoM, Saskatoon, SK, Canada); Hitoshi Tanaka (KEK, Tsukuba, Japan); David Button (ANSTO, Kirrawee, NSW, Australia); Rohan Dowd (ANSTO, Kirrawee, NSW, Australia); Volker RW Schaa (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany); Eugene Tan (ANSTO, Kirrawee, NSW, Australia) |
| Online ISBN |
978-3-95450-208-0 |
| Received |
19 May 2019 |
| Accepted |
23 May 2019 |
| Issue Date |
21 June 2019 |
| DOI |
doi:10.18429/JACoW-IPAC2019-THPMP048 |
| Pages |
3555-3557 |
| Copyright |
 Published by JACoW Publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s), the published article's title, publisher, and DOI. |
|
