Speaker
Description
Neutron spallation is an efficient process for producing intense neutron fluxes that can be exploited in Accelerator Driven Subcritical Reactors (ADSRs) for energy production and the transmutation of nuclear waste. In order to assess the feasibility of spallation driven fission and transmutation we have simulated proton induced neutron production using GEANT4, initially benchmarking our simulations against published experimental neutron spectra produced from a thick lead target bombarded with 0.5 and 1.5 GeV protons. The Bertini and INCL models available in GEANT4, coupled with the high precision (HP) neutron model, are found to adequately reproduce the published experimental data. Given the confidence in the GEANT4 simulations provided by this benchmarking we have then proceeded to some preliminary studies of neutron production using Thorium in an ADSR with a geometry similar to that of the proposed Belgian MYRRHA project with 0.6 GeV proton beam energy that proposed by SCKCEN.
