The GUINEVERE project at the VENUS facility

Proc. on CD Rom log315International audienceThe GUINEVERE project is an international project in the framework of IP-EUROTRANS, the FP6 program which aims at addressing the main issues for ADS development in the framework of partitioning and transmutation for nuclear waste volume and radiotoxicity reduction. The GUINEVERE project is carried out in the context of domain 2 of IP-EUROTRANS, ECATS, devoted to specific experiments for the coupling of an accelerator, a target and a subcritical core. These experiments should provide an answer to the questions of online reactivity monitoring, sub-criticality determination and operational procedures (loading, start-up, shutdown, …) in an ADS by 2009-2010. The project has the objective to couple a fast lead core, within the VENUS building operated by the SCK•CEN, with a neutron generator able to work in three different modes: pulsed, continuous and continuous with beam interruptions at the millisecond scale. In order to achieve this goal, the VENUS facility has to be adapted and a modified GENEPI-3C accelerator has to be designed and constructed. The paper describes the main modifications to the reactor core and facility and to the accelerator, which will be executed during the years 2008 and 2009, and the experimental programme which will start in 2009

EUROTRANS/ECATS or neutronic experiments for the validation of XT-ADS and EFIT monitoring

OECD (2011) NEA 6897 ISBN 978926411727

ECATS: an international experimental program on the reactivity monitoring of Accelerator Driven Systems - Status and progress

International audienc

ADS reactivity measurements from MUSE to TRADE (and where do we Go from here?)

International audienceThis paper provides a link between the MUSE (MUltiplication avec SourceExterne) program performed at CEA-Cadarache in France, and the TRADE(TRiga Accelerator Driven Experiment) program performed at ENEA-Casacciain Italy. In both programs, extensive measurements were made to determinethe best methods for sub-criticality measurements in an accelerator-driven system.A very serious attempt was made to quantify the uncertainties associatedwith such measurements. While both MUSE and TRADE studied the methodsof sub-criticality determination, in fact the two systems are very different.MUSE was a fast system with MOX fuel (generation time around 0.5 μs), andTRADE was performed in a TRIGA reactor (generation time around 50 μs).This paper will summarize the important results of these two experiments,with the main purpose being to tie them together to attempt to draw genericconclusions that can be applied in the future to a real ADS.In addition, this paper will briefly discuss the next series of experiments thatwill continue this work in the U.S. (RACE, Reactor Accelerator Coupled Experiments),Belarus (YALINA), Belgium (GUINEVERE), and Russia (SAD,Sub-critical Assembly Dubna). MUSE and TRADE have contributed greatlyto our understanding of the uncertainties associated with sub-critical measurements,but there are still some gaps that must be covered. This paper willdescribe the gaps that exist, and demonstrate how the above future programswill fill in the missing information needed for the design of an actual ADSsystem in the future

The TRADE experiment and progress

TRADE (TRIGA Reactor Accelerator Driven Experiment) will be the demonstration of the coupling of a real spallation source with a sub-critical reactor. TRADE and its motivation are summarised. The experimental work plan of the campaign is presented. The first experiments with the accelerator are scheduled around 2006 or 2007. Some specifics of the TRIGA core are given and particularly about fuel burn-up. Core calculation results with Monte-Carlo and deterministic codes and rods worth obtained during the short campaign of fall 2002 are presented. The comparison between calculated results and this first experiment gives confidence for the follow-up work