Analysis of integrated target in thorium‐based molten salt fast energy amplifier

Abstract

Conventional neutron targets in accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS) are based on the design using heavy metal like lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), which generally needs a separated loop for target cooling. In the thorium-based molten salt fast energy amplifier, an integrated target is conceived that the proton beam is directly placed in the chloride/fluoride molten salt core without a separated cooling loop for the target in consideration of the neutron productivity of the liquid molten salt fuel bombarded with the proton. The physical analysis of the spallation target is presented, including the spallation neutron yield, neutron spectrum, spallation products, and energy deposition. Chloride molten salt is a reasonable choice among four kinds of simulated target based on considering about the neutron yield, neutron spectrum, spallation products and energy deposition. The simulation code is the Monte Carlo code MCNP6.1. Besides, evaluation of the target size is presented, and two kinds of the beam tube layout are compared by considering the neutron economy in the system.