부산대학교 도서관

The Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) Target/Blanket and Materials Engineering Demonstration and Development (ED and D) Project has undertaken a major program of high-power materials irradiation at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) Accelerator. Five experiments have been installed in the Target A-6 area, immediately before the Isotope Production facility and the LANSCE bearnstop, where they will take a 1.0-mAmp-proton beam for up to 10 months. This operation is classed as a Nuclear Category (cat)-3 activity, since enough radionuclides buildup in the path of tie beam to exceed cat-3 threshold quantities. In the process of analyzing this buildup, it was realized that a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) could result in oxidation and subsequent vaporization of certain tungsten elements contained in our experiments. If this process occurs in the presence of steam, breakup of the water molecule would also provide a potentially explosive source of hydrogen, causing maximum release of radioactive aerosols to the surrounding environment. This process can occur in a matter of seconds. Such a release would result in potentially unacceptable dose to the public at the LANSCE site boundary, 800 meters from the A-6 area.