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An ADS (Accelerator Driven System) - sometimes also called a nuclear amplifier - is an alternative concept to the critical nuclear reactor. The idea was first proposed by Nobel prize laureate E.O. Lawrence in the 1950's and was revived by another Nobel prize laureate C. Rubbia in 1993 after recent major advances in accelerator technology. |
The main advantage of an ADS is its non-critical fission core, i.e. a core that cannot on its own sustain the fission chain reactions. Instead, a neutron source placed at the center of the core provides primary neutrons which are then multiplied or amplified by the core. The gain of the amplifying core is given by the formula 1/(1-Ks) where Ks < 1 is the "K-source" value of the core.
The primary source produces neutrons by spallation of heavu nuclei under a high energy (several 100 MeV) proton beam generated by a suitable particle accelerator. One dominant feature of an ADS is its inherent safety: the reactor is switched off at the moment the proton beam is switched off.
An ADS is a neutron source created by coupling a proton accelerator , a spallation source and a sub-critical core.