Conceptual design, activation and shielding of the 17 MeV beam dump

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

An important component of the accelerator is the beam dump designed to stop the 17 MeV primary protons delivered by the injector. The beam current of the proton beam to be stopped by the beam dump is 4 mA. The beam dump was named ALBERT (Aluminum Low Beam Energy Revoluted Terminal). This deliverable will only look at the main safety aspects related to this 17 MeV full power beam dump. Other beam dumps will be discussed in other future deliverables. ALBERT is made out of a series of aluminum disks. These Al-6061 disks are welded to form the beam dump core. The heat generated in the beam dump by stopping the proton beam is removed by cooling water. Next to heat, prompt radiation and induced activity will be produced in the beam dump material as well. These are due to interactions of the primary protons and secondary particles (i.e. protons, neutrons, photons) with the beam dump components and shielding material. This shielding around the beam dump is needed as a protection against prompt and residual radiation. In this document the current design of the beam dump is presented. Based upon this design a first safety assessment of the beam dump is made considering LOCA (Loss Of Coolant Accident). Other accidents/incidents will be discussed in future deliverables like F2, the Worst case accident for the accelerator and F5, the list of initiating events considered for the 100 MeV accelerator. There are 2 reasons why this particular accident (LOCA) was already presented in this deliverable. First reason is that in this document the cooling and the thermal requirements of the beam dump are being described and secondly the time during which the beam dump can receive the proton beam without any cooling was assessed as it needs to be long enough to be able to respond to the event. If too short the design of the beam dump would need some adaptations. Next to this a MCNPX Monte Carlo model was made to perform preliminary calculations of prompt dose rates and activation of the materials used. These were performed to evaluate the necessary shielding around the beam dump. Also the radionuclide inventory of the beam dump components and the shielding materials around it were assessed. Finally the decay heat generated by the irradiated beam dump was evaluated to determine whether post irradiation cooling is necessary.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherSCK CEN
Number of pages36
StatePublished - 12 Sep 2019

Publication series

NameSCK•CEN Reports
PublisherStudiecentrum voor Kernenergie
No.ER-0583

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