Status and Outlook of ADS in US

This paper attempts to give a brief overview of activities (past, present and possible future) devoted to the development of the accelerator driven systems (ADS) and their applications in the US.

The ADS related activities peaked in the US in 90’s as a possible solution for handling the Used Nuclear Fuel (UNF) and/or nuclear waste. At similar times, in Europe, Carlo Rubio and a group from CERN proposed a cyclotron-based system using a Thorium fuel cycle as an alternative to the standard critical fission reactors. They argued that a Thorium cycle reduced the concern about long-lived higher actinides and there is an abundant amount of Thorium worldwide. Under the Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW) project in the US, significant efforts focused on the development of ADS concepts for transmutation of nuclear waste. Similar efforts were conducted in other “nuclear” countries. These efforts, however, were abandoned in the US in the early 2000’s. An IAEA report and a roadmap developed in the US provide excellent summary of the outcomes of these activities.

Among noteworthy activities in the US, the author recognizes the ANL’s Neutron Source Facility project, and activities at Virginia Tech and two private companies (ADNA and Muon). This paper will focus on the collaborative work conducted between VT and ADNA that resulted in the GEM*STAR (Green Energy Multiplier Subcritical Thermal-spectrum Accelerator-driven Recycling reactors) system design, and the ANL’s design of an electron accelerator Driven Subcritical

facility that their concept design for disposing of nuclear waste.

The paper presents an analysis performed on the GEM*STAR design and elaborates on the potential for the development of alternative systems, e.g., ADMIRE (Accelerator Driven

Microreactor) that uses molten salt Thorium fuel cycle and generates process heat. The author believes that an ADS system, e.g., ADMIRE, can effectively close the nuclear fuel cycle by burning the UNF to generate energy. The recent studies in the US and ongoing MYRRHA project in Belgium should provide the necessary justification for establishing a new public-private funded initiative on the development and deployment of ADS systems in the US.