Dr. Michael Wohlmuther on behalf of the MEGAPIE project
Head of Target Development Group, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen
MEGAPIE (Megawatt Pilot Experiment) is a joint international project started in the year 2000 to design, build, operate, dismantle, dispose and examine a liquid lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) spallation target. The MEGAPIE target was the first liquid metal target ever operated in the Megawatt regime, at a power level of 0.8 MW, in the Swiss spallation neutron source (SINQ). The target has successfully been irradiated in a period from August until December 2006, receiving a total beam charge of 2.8 Ah of 590 MeV protons. After successful operation it was stored in the target storage facility of SINQ, waiting for its post irradiation examination, PIE. In the time since the end of 2006 several campaigns of tests have been conducted by PSI and interim storage facility of Swiss nuclear power plants - ZWILAG - in the hot cells of ZWILAG. In these tests the feasibility of the conditioning of the target and the extraction of target sample pieces for the PIE has been proven. In June 2009 the dismantling of the MEGAPIE target started. The target was successfully cut into 21 pieces; ten of these pieces have been shipped back to the Hot Laboratory of PSI to produce samples of the structural materials as well as the LBE, while the remaining parts of the MEGAPIE target were conditioned to become nuclear waste. Just two weeks ago the
PIE preparation phase was started. We report on the status of the MEGAPIE project, providing a general overview on the milestones achieved up to now. In addition an outlook on the PIE phase of MEGAPIE will be given.
