Comparative analysis of proton and light ion beams for energy amplification in subcritical systems

Abstract

The efficiency of 0.5–4GeV proton and 0.25–1AGeV light ion (7Li, 9Be, 11B, and 12C) beams for energy production in a large subcritical enriched U target is analyzed using Geant4. The possibility of increasing the energy deposited in the target irradiated by ion beams with an energy below 0.5AGeV by using a window from low Z materials is analyzed. It is shown that 0.3–0.4AGeV light ion beams are advantageous for ADS from the point of view of energy gain and accelerator size.