Accelerator-driven sub-critical reactors that are envisaged for the transmutation of nuclear waste use intense neutron fluxes produced through spallation reactions in a heavy metal target. The mechanism and specific characteristics of the high-energy nuclear reactions that occurs in ADS are described. The impact on target design, radioactivity production and material damage is discussed. Also, the general features of the simulation tools used to design ADS are presented and the precision with which each quantity important for applications can be predicted is given. |
