In-situ measurement of radiation driven back-conversion from para to ortho liquid hydrogen state in cold moderators at J-PARC

Teshigawara, Makoto; Lee, Y.*; Tatsumoto, Hideki*; Hartl, M.*; Aso, Tomokazu; Iverson, E. B.*; Ariyoshi, Gen; Ikeda, Yujiro*; Hasegawa, Takumi*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 557, p.165534_1 - 165534_10, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2024.165534

At Japanese Spallation Neutron Source in J-PARC, the para-hydrogen fraction was measured by using Raman spectroscopy in-situ for an integrated beam power of 9.4 MWh at 1 MW operation, to evaluate the functionality of the ferric oxyhydroxide catalyst. This result showed that full functionality of the catalyst was retained up to the 1 MW operation. We attempted to study the effect of neutron scattering driven para to ortho-hydrogen back-conversion rate in the absence of the catalyst effect with a bypass line without catalyst. The measured increase of ortho-hydrogen fraction was 0.44% for an integrated beam power of 2.4 MWh at 500 kW operation, however, which was considered to be due to not only to neutron collisions in cold moderators but also to the high ortho-hydrogen fraction of initially static liquid hydrogen in the bypass line and passive exudation of quasi-static hydrogen in the catalyst vessel to the main loop.

Design and beam dynamics studies of a chopper for the JAEA-ADS LEBT

Yee-Rendon, B.; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Maekawa, Fujio; Meigo, Shinichiro

Proceedings of 21st Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.205 - 209, 2024/10

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2024/proceedings/PDF/WEP0/WEP001.pdf

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) designs a 30-MW CW proton linear accelerator (linac) as a key component for the accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) project, aimed at nuclear waste management. The low energy beam transport (LEBT) in JAEA-ADS uses charge neutralization to minimize space-charge effects, which are the primary cause of beam loss in high-power accelerators. During commissioning and power ramp-up, precise control of the duty cycle is required for safety and machine protection; thus, a chopper system will be installed to manage the beam power. The chopper is located at the LEBT, to facilitate the disposal of the excess beam power, but its operation will affect the charge neutralization producing beam transients that could lead to beam loss. To shed light on this, we created a beam optics model for the chopper using an analytic approach to determine the required characteristics like voltage and dimensions, which was confirmed through TraceWin simulations. Subsequently, we analyzed the chopper's impact on space-charge compensation to evaluate the beam transients in the LEBT. This study reports the design of the chopper and its effects on beam performance for the JAEA-ADS LEBT.

Design of the Low energy beam transport line for the JAEA-ADS linac

Yee-Rendon, B.; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Maekawa, Fujio; Meigo, Shinichiro

Proceedings of 20th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.545 - 549, 2023/11

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2023/proceedings/PDF/WEP2/WEP23.pdf

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is proposing a 30-MW proton linear accelerator (linac) for the application of accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) technology to achieve nuclear waste transmutation. A major challenge for the JAEA-ADS linac is the efficient transport of a 35 keV proton beam from the ion source to the radio-frequency quadrupole. In order to achieve this goal, we have optimized a magnetostatic low energy beam transport (LEBT) consisting of two solenoids to reduce the transmission of high-charge ions generated by the source and minimize the growth of proton emittance, while taking into account various space-charge compensation scenarios. In this report, we present the optical design and discuss the multiparticle tracking results of the JAEA-ADS LEBT.

Measurement of H particles generated by residual gas stripping in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex linac

Tamura, Jun; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Liu, Y.*; Miyao, Tomoaki*; Morishita, Takatoshi; Nemoto, Yasuo*; Okabe, Kota; Yoshimoto, Masahiro

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1049, p.168033_1 - 168033_7, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2023.168033

The Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) linac is a high-intensity accelerator in which beam loss is a critical issue. In the J-PARC linac, H beams are accelerated to 191~MeV by a separated drift tube linac (SDTL) and subsequently to 400~MeV by an annular-ring coupled structure (ACS). Because there are more beam loss mechanisms in H linacs than in proton linacs, it is imperative to investigate the beam loss circumstances for beam loss mitigation. Electron-stripping phenomena, which generate uncontrollable H particles, are characteristic beam loss factors of H linacs. To clarify the beam loss causes in the J-PARC linac, a new diagnostic line was installed in the beam transport between the SDTL and ACS. In this diagnostic line, H particles were separated from the H beam, and the intensity profiles of the H particles were successfully measured by horizontally scanning a graphite plate in the range where H particles were distributed. By examining the intensity variation of the H particles with different residual pressure levels, we proved that half of the H particles in the SDTL section are generated by the residual gas stripping in the nominal beam operation of the J-PARC linac.

Robust and compact design of a 30-MW beam transport line for an accelerator-driven subcritical system

Yee-Rendon, B.; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Nakano, Keita; Maekawa, Fujio; Meigo, Shinichiro

Proceedings of 19th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.179 - 183, 2023/01

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2022/proceedings/PDF/FROA/FROA07.pdf

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency accelerator-driven subcritical system (JAEA-ADS) pursues the reduction of nuclear waste by transmuting minor actinides. JAEA-ADS project drives a 30-MW proton beam to a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) spallation target to produce neutrons for a subcritical core reactor. To this end, the JAEA-ADS beam transport (BT) must provide a suitable beam profile and stable beam power to the beam window of the spallation target to avoid high-thermal stress in the components, such as the beam window. The beam transport was optimized by tracking a large number of macroparticles to mitigate the beam loss, performance with high stability in the presence of errors, and fulfill the length requirement on the transport. This work presents beam transport design and beam dynamics research for the JAEA-ADS project.

A Plan of Proton Irradiation Facility at J-PARC and possibilities of application to nuclear data research

Maekawa, Fujio

JAEA-Conf 2022-001, p.7 - 13, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.11484/jaea-conf-2022-001

The partitioning and transmutation (P-T) technology has promising potential for volume reduction and mitigation of degree of harmfulness of high-level radioactive waste. JAEA is developing the P-T technology combined with accelerator driven systems (ADS). One of critical issues affecting the feasibility of ADS is the proton beam window (PBW) which functions as a boundary between the accelerator and the sub-critical reactor core. The PBW is damaged by a high-intensity proton beam and spallation neutrons produced in the target, and also by flowing high-temperature liquid lead bismuth eutectic alloy which is corrosive to steel materials. To study the materials damage under the ADS environment, J-PARC is proposing a plan of proton irradiation facility which equips with a liquid lead-bismuth spallation target bombarded by a 400 MeV - 250 kW proton beam. The facility is also open for versatile purposes such as soft error testing of semi-conductor devises, RI production, materials irradiation for fission and fusion reactors, and so on. Application to nuclear data research with using the proton beam and spallation neutrons is also one of such versatile purposes, and we welcome unique ideas from the nuclear data community.

Beam physics design of a 30-MW beam transport to the target for an accelerator-driven subcritical system

Yee-Rendon, B.; Meigo, Shinichiro; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Nakano, Keita; Maekawa, Fujio; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Sugawara, Takanori; Nishihara, Kenji

Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 17(10), p.P10005_1 - P10005_21, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/17/10/P10005

To reduce the hazard of minor actinides in nuclear waste, JAEA proposed an accelerator-driven subcritical system (JAEA-ADS). The JAEA-ADS drives a subcritical reactor 800-MWth by 30-MW proton linac delivering the beam to the spallation neutron target inside the reactor. The beam transport to the target (BTT) is required for high-beam power stability and low peak density to ensure the integrity of the beam window. Additionally, the design should have compatible with the reactor design for the maintenance and replacement of the fuel and the beam window. A robust-compact BTT design was developed through massive multiparticle simulations. The beam optics was optimized to guarantee beam window feasibility requirements by providing a low peak density of less than 0.3 A/mm. Beam stability was evaluated and improved by simultaneously applying the linac's input beam and element errors. The input beam errors to the reactor were based on the beam degradation obtained by implementing fast fault compensation in the linac. Those results show that the BTT fulfills the requirements for JAEA-ADS.

R&D on Accelerator Driven Nuclear Transmutation System (ADS) at J-PARC, 5; Research and developments of a superconducting linac for ADS

Kondo, Yasuhiro; Takei, Hayanori; Yee-Rendon, B.; Tamura, Jun

Purazuma, Kaku Yugo Gakkai-Shi, 98(5), p.222 - 226, 2022/05

A superconducting accelerating cavity is indispensable to realize a driver linac that meets the requirements of ADS. The low-energy section of the accelerators, which is normal conducting one, was redesigned to reflect the recent progress in the development of superconducting accelerator cavities. In addition, we are developing a prototype cavity for the spoke-type cavity that has not been developed well. This section reports on the latest research and development of ADS linacs at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

R&D on Accelerator Driven Nuclear Transmutation System (ADS) at J-PARC, 2; Transmutation Experimental Facility at J-PARC

Maekawa, Fujio; Takei, Hayanori

Purazuma, Kaku Yugo Gakkai-Shi, 98(5), p.206 - 210, 2022/05

In developing an accelerator-driven nuclear transmutation system (ADS), it is necessary to solve technical issues related to proton beams, such as the development of materials that can withstand high-intensity proton beams and the characterization of subcritical cores driven by proton beams. Therefore, at the high-intensity proton accelerator facility J-PARC, a transmutation experimental facility that actually conducts various tests using a high-intensity proton beam is being planned. This paper introduces the outline and future direction of the transmutation experimental facility.

Neutronic analysis of beam window and LBE of an Accelerator-Driven System

Nakano, Keita; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nishihara, Kenji; Meigo, Shinichiro; Sugawara, Takanori; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Takeshita, Hayato*; Maekawa, Fujio

JAEA-Research 2021-018, 41 Pages, 2022/03

JAEA-Research-2021-018.pdf:2.93MB

Neutronic analysis of beam window of the Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) proposed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducted using PHITS and DCHAIN-PHITS codes. We investigate gas production of hydrogen and helium isotopes in the beam window, displacement per atom of beam window material, and heat generation in the beam window. In addition, distributions of produced nuclides, heat density, and activity are derived. It was found that at the maximum 12500 appm H production, 1800 appm He production, and damage of 62.1 DPA occurred in the beam window by the ADS operation. On the other hand, the maximum heat generation in the beam window was 374 W/cm. In the analysis of LBE, Bi and Po were found to be the dominant nuclides in decay heat and radioactivity. Furthermore, the heat generation in the LBE by the proton beam was maximum around 5 cm downstream of the beam window, which was 945 W/cm.