Advanced Neutron Source
The Advanced Neutron Source , or ANS for short , was a concept for an American research reactor , the concrete planning of which began in 1985. The project was discontinued at the proposal of the Department of Energy in 1996 because of the ever increasing costs. The cost estimate at the time was about $ 2.9 billion. Most recently, the main reason for the constantly rising costs was the conversion of the design, which was originally based on highly enriched uranium (HEU), to a concept with weakly enriched uranium (LEU) as part of the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program.
interpretation
The reactor was designed as a strong neutron source and used concepts based on those of the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the HFR at the Laue-Langevin Institute . It should generate a maximum neutron flux of around 7.5 × 10 15 n / (cm 2 s) and thus surpass the currently (2/2010) most intense neutron source, the HFR, by at least a factor of 5. As a beam tube reactor , it was primarily designed for neutron scattering experiments, but it also had extensive possibilities for isotope production.
Web links
- Website of the ORNL ( Memento of July 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )