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Accelerator-driven subcritical reactor
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<h2 id="accelerator-developments">Accelerator developments</h2> <p>The "electron model of many applications" (<a href="/facts/EMMA_(accelerator)/euAsJRkU">EMMA</a>) is a new type of particle accelerator that could support an ADSR. The prototype was built at <a href="/facts/Daresbury_Laboratory/1IITqXkW">Daresbury Laboratory</a> in Cheshire, UK. Uniquely, EMMA is a new hybrid of a <a href="/facts/Cyclotron/Q8APwhWm">cyclotron</a> and a <a href="/facts/Synchrotron/J1oWBgbU">synchrotron</a>, combining their advantages into a compact, economical form. EMMA is a non-scaling fixed-field alternating-gradient (<a href="/facts/FFAG_accelerator/LCwlCws5">FFAG accelerator</a>). The prototype accelerates electrons from 10 to 20 MeV, using the existing <a href="/facts/ALICE_(accelerator)/HggM3YSC">ALICE accelerator</a> as the injector. In FFAG accelerators the magnetic field in the bending magnets is constant during acceleration, causing the particle beam to move radially outwards as its momentum increases. A non-scaling FFAG allows a quantity known as the "<a href="/facts/Betatron/dguFUEYW">betatron</a> tune" to vary unchecked. In a conventional synchrotron such a variation results in beam loss as the tune hits various resonance conditions. However, in EMMA the beam crosses these resonances so rapidly that the beam survives. The prototype accelerates electrons instead of protons, but proton generators can be built using the same principles.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="safety">Safety</h2> <p>Unlike uranium-235, thorium is not fissile – it essentially does not split on its own, exhibiting a half-life of 14.05 billion years (20 times that of U-235). The fission process stops when the proton beam stops, as when power is lost, as the reactor is subcritical. Microscopic quantities of plutonium are produced, and are then burned in the same reactor.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="rubbia-design">Rubbia design</h2> <p>The Norwegian group <a href="/facts/Aker_Solutions/UgatETEX">Aker Solutions</a> bought <a href="https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US5774514">US patent 5774514</a> "Energy amplifier for nuclear energy production driven by a particle beam accelerator" held by Nobel Prize-winning physicist <a href="/facts/Carlo_Rubbia/NPBPzHNV">Carlo Rubbia</a> and as of 2013 was working on a thorium reactor. The company proposes a network of small 600 megawatt reactors located underground that can supply small grids and do not require an enormous facility for safety and security. Costs for the first reactor are estimated at £2bn.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p><a href="/facts/Richard_Garwin/F1rEpl8p">Richard Garwin</a> and <a href="/facts/Georges_Charpak/jFRLcczW">Georges Charpak</a> describe the <a href="/facts/Energy_amplifier/CUhbyykX">energy amplifier</a> in detail in their book "Megawatts and Megatons: A Turning Point in the Nuclear Age?" (2001) on pages 153 to 163. </p><p>Earlier, the general concept of the <a href="/facts/Energy_amplifier/CUhbyykX">energy amplifier</a>, namely an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor, was covered in "The Second Nuclear Era" (1985), a book by <a href="/facts/Alvin_M._Weinberg/gPlDN3sg">Alvin M. Weinberg</a> and others. </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor/3BQ1QVjV">Liquid fluoride thorium reactor</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Energy_amplifier/CUhbyykX">Energy amplifier</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/MYRRHA/pkaBt2JK">MYRRHA</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US5160696">US patent 5160696</a> : Bowman, C (1992) "Apparatus for nuclear transmutation and power production using an intense accelerator-generated thermal neutron flux"</li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hspcafUoh6M">Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future by Professor Robert Cywinski</a> on <a href="/facts/YouTube_video_(identifier)/db276jst">YouTube</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Towards an alternative nuclear future | University Alliance". Unialliance.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-09-06. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Towards an alternative nuclear future | University Alliance". Unialliance.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-09-06. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Nature Physics Cover: Novel Acceleration | TRIUMF : Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics". Triumf.ca. 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2013-09-06. <a href="http://www.triumf.ca/research-highlights/experimental-result/nature-physics-cover-novel-acceleration" target="_blank">http://www.triumf.ca/research-highlights/experimental-result/nature-physics-cover-novel-acceleration</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Machida, S.; Barlow, R.; Berg, J. S.; Bliss, N.; Buckley, R. K.; Clarke, J. A.; Craddock, M. K.; d’Arcy, R.; Edgecock, R.; Garland, J. M.; Giboudot, Y.; Goudket, P.; Griffiths, S.; Hill, C.; Hill, S. F.; Hock, K. M.; Holder, D. J.; Ibison, M. G.; Jackson, F.; Jamison, S. P.; Johnstone, C.; Jones, J. K.; Jones, L. B.; Kalinin, A.; Keil, E.; Kelliher, D. J.; Kirkman, I. W.; Koscielniak, S.; Marinov, K.; Marks, N. (2012). "Acceleration in the linear non-scaling fixed-field alternating-gradient accelerator EMMA". Nature Physics. 8 (3): 243. Bibcode:2012NatPh...8..243M. doi:10.1038/nphys2179. S2CID 119530771. <a href="/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Towards an alternative nuclear future | University Alliance". Unialliance.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-09-06. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062937/http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/campaigns/problemsolved/cleaner-energy/nuclear-future/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose (29 August 2010). "Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium". Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-09-06. <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/7970619/Obama-could-kill-fossil-fuels-overnight-with-a-nuclear-dash-for-thorium.html" target="_blank">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/7970619/Obama-could-kill-fossil-fuels-overnight-with-a-nuclear-dash-for-thorium.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>