Dependence of neutron rate production with accelerator beam profile and energy range in an ADS-TRIGA RC1 reactor

Abstract

Abstract Lead, mercury, tantalum and tungsten were used as target material for calculation of spallation processes in an ADS-TRIGA RC1 reactor. The results show that tungsten has the highest neutron production rate. Therefore it was selected as target material for further calculations. The sensitivity of neutron parameters of the ADS reactor core relative to a change of beam profile and proton energy was determined. The core assembly and parameters of the TRIGA RC1 demonstration facility were used for the calculation model. By changing the proton energy from 115 to 1 400 MeV by using the intra-nuclear cascade model of Bertini (INC-Bertini), the quantity of the relative difference in % for energy gain (G) and spallation neutron yield (Yn/p), increases to 289.99 % and 5199.15 % respectively. These changes also reduce the amount of relative difference for the proton beam current (Ip) and accelerator power (Pacc), 99.81 % and 81.28 % respectively. In addition, the use of a Gaussian distribution instead of a uniform distribution in the accelerator beam profile increases the quantity of relative difference for energy gain (G), net neutron multiplication (M) and spallation neutron yield (Yn/p), up to 4.93 %, 4.9 % and 5.55 % respectively.