Conditions for effective utilization of the electronuclear blanket system as a neutron source

Abstract

The efficiency of an intermediate-energy electronuclear setup with a blanket as an alternative source of neutrons is discussed on the basis of experience in designing the electronuclear neutron generator at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. A classification of electronuclear setups is introduced. The factors determining the efficiency of the driver-target-multiplying blanket scheme at low and intermediate driver energies are examined. To obtain high neutron fluxes, the possibility of compensating an inadequate driver current by decreasing the subcriticality store is examined and the conditions for realizing such a possibility while preserving the fundamental requirement of nuclear safety are formulated. The concept of the criterion of dynamical safety, in contrast to the criterion of static safety ordinarily assumed for subcritical systems, is introduced. A program of precision investigations for studying operating regimes of a blanket under conditions of a low store of subcriticality is formulated on the basis of the criterion of dynamical safety. The results of an implementation of this program are important for the assessment of the technological possibility and desirability of replacing research reactors with subcritical setups based on an accelerator. 2 figures, 6 references.