Abstract
In the last ten years, Russia and other countries have been showing a great deal of interest in two-section blanket reactors with unilateral neutron coupling of the sections (cascade-type blankets). These setups are intended to operate in power and transmutation electronuclear facilities, for which they permit decreasing substantially the required power of the proton accelerator. Theoretical and design works have been done on cascade-type blankets, but until very recently there were no experimental works.
The results of the first experiment of this type, performed at the All-Russia Scientific-Research Institute of Experimental Physics, on compact deeply subcritical uranium–neptunium assemblies are presented. The experiment has confirmed the theoretical conclusion that cascade blankets have positive properties and 237Np is effective as a means for achieving unilateral coupling of the sections.
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Zav'yalov, N.V., Kolesov, V.F., Kuvshinov, M.I. et al. Experimental Confirmation of the Concept of Two-Section Cascade-Type Blankets. Atomic Energy 95, 820–828 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ATEN.0000018994.91616.a2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ATEN.0000018994.91616.a2