Neutronic design study of accelerator driven system (ADS) for Jordan subcritical reactor as a neutron source for nuclear research.
In this paper, a preliminary neutronic design study of an accelerator driven subcritical system for Jordan Subcritical Assembly (JSA) is presented. The conceptual design of coupling the JSA core with proton accelerator and spallation target is investigated, and its feasibility as a neutron source for nuclear research, and possibly for target irradiation and isotope production evaluated. 3D MCNPX model of the JSA reactor, the accelerator beam, and the Pb target was developed, based on actual reactor parameters. MCNPX calculations were carried out to estimate the absolute radial and axial neutron flux in the reactor, and to calculate the multiplication factor Keff and heat generated in the reactor. Numerical results showed an enormous increase in the neutron flux, by seven orders of magnitude, compared to the current JSA core design using Pu-Be source. In this research the results obtained are discussed and compared with those of the JSA, and do confirm the feasibility of utilizing the JSA as a viable nuclear research facility with adequate neutron flux.
Transmutation of long-lived fission products in an advanced nuclear energy system
Disposal of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) produced in reactors has been paid a lot attention for sustainable and clean nuclear energy. Although a few transmutation means have been proposed to address this issue, there are still scientific and/or engineering challenges to achieve efficient transmutation of LLFPs. In this study, we propose a novel concept of advanced nuclear energy system (ANES) for transmuting LLFPs efficiently without isotopic separation. The ANES comprises intense photoneutron source (PNS) and subcritical reactor, which consist of lead–bismuth (Pb-Bi) layer, beryllium (Be) layer, and fuel, LLFPs and shield assemblies. The PNS is produced by bombarding radioactive cesium and iodine target with a laser-Compton scattering (LCS) γ-ray beam. We investigate the effect of the ANES system layout on transmutation efficiency by Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that a proper combination of the Pb-Bi layer and the Be layer can increase the utilization efficiency of the PNS by a factor of ~ 10, which helps to decrease by almost the same factor the LCS γ-beam intensity required for driving the ANES. Supposing that the ANES operates over 20 years at a normal thermal power of 500 MWt, five LLFPs including 99Tc, 129I, 107Pd, 137Cs and 79Se could be transmuted by more than 30%. Their effective half-lives thus decrease drastically from ~ 106 to less than 102 years. It is suggested that this successful implementation of the ANES paves the avenue towards practical transmutation of LLFPs without isotopic separation.
Two-dimensional gravitational anomalies, Schwinger terms and dispersion relations
Abstract We are dealing with two-dimensional gravitational anomalies, specifically with the Einstein anomaly and the Weyl anomaly, and we show that they are fully determined by dispersion relations independent of any renormalization procedure (or ultraviolet regularization). The origin of the anomalies is the existence of a superconvergence sum rule for the imaginary part of the relevant formfactor. In the zero mass limit the imaginary part of the formfactor approaches a δ-function singularity at zero momentum squared, exhibiting in this way the infrared feature of the gravitational anomalies. We find an equivalence between the dispersive approach and the dimensional regularization procedure. The Schwinger terms appearing in the equal time commutators of the energy momentum tensors can be calculated by the same dispersive method. Although all computations are performed in two dimensions the method is expected to work in higher dimensions too.