Investigation of Lead Target Nuclei Used on Accelerator-Driven Systems for Tritium Production

Abstract

High-current proton accelerators are being researched at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other laboratories for accelerator production of tritium, transmuting long-lived radioactive waste into shorter-lived products, converting excess plutonium, and producing energy. These technologies make use of spallation neutrons produced in (p,xn) and (n,xn) nuclear reactions on high-Z targets. Through (p,xn) and (n,xn) nuclear reactions, neutrons are produced and are moderated by heavy water. These moderated neutrons are subsequently captured on 3He to produce tritium via the (n,p) reaction. Tritium self-sufficiency must be maintained for a commercial fusion power plant. Rubbia succeeded in a proposal of a full scale demonstration plant of the Energy Amplifier. This plant is to be known the accelerator-driven system (ADS). The ADS can be used for production of neutrons in spallation neutron source and they can act as an intense neutron source in accelerator-driven subcritical reactors, capable of incinerating nuclear waste and of producing energy. Thorium and Uranium are nuclear fuels and Lead, Bismuth, Tungsten are the target nuclei in these reactor systems. The spallation targets can be Pb, Bi, W, etc. isotopes and these target material can be liquid or solid. Naturally Lead includes the 204Pb (%1.42), 206Pb (%24.1), 207Pb (%22.1) and 208Pb (%52.3) isotopes. The design of ADS systems and also a fusion-fission hybrid reactor systems require the knowledge of a wide range of better data. In this study, by using Hartree–Fock method with an effective nucleon-nucleon Skyrme interactions rms nuclear charge radii, rms nuclear mass radii, rms nuclear proton, neutron radii and neutron skin thickness were calculated for the 204, 206, 208Pb isotopes. The calculated results have been compared with those of the compiled experimental and theoretical values of other studies.