CERN Accelerating science

Preprint
Report number	E1-2001-136 ; JINR-E1-2001-136
Title	Transmutation of $^{239}$Pu and Other Nuclides Using Spallation Neutrons Produced by Relativistic Protons Reacting with Massive U- and Pb-Targets
Author(s)	Adam, J ; Balabekyan, A R ; Bamblevski, V P ; Barabanov, M Yu ; Bradnova, V ; Chaloun, P ; Hella, K M ; Kalinnikov, V G ; Krivopustov, M I ; Kulakov, B A ; Perelygin, V P ; Pronskikh, V S ; Pavliouk, A V ; Solnyshkin, A A ; Sosnin, A N ; Stegailov, V I ; Tsoupko-Sitnikov, V M ; Zaverioukha, O S ; Adloff, J C ; Debeauvais, M ; Brandt, R ; Langrock, E J ; Vater, P ; Van, J S ; Westmeier, W ; Dwivedi, K K ; Guo Shi Lun ; Li Li Qiang ; Hashemi-Nezhad, S R ; Kievets, M K ; Lomonosova, E M ; Zhuk, I V ; Modolo, G ; Odoj, R ; Zamani-Valassiadou, M
Affiliation	(Laboratory of High Energies, Dubna) ; (Institute de Recherche Subatomique, Strasbourg, France) ; (Institut fuer Physikalische Chemie, Kernchemie und Makromolekulare Chemie, Philipps-Universitaet, Marburg, 35032 Germany) ; (Arunachal University, Rono Hills, Itanagar - 791111, India) ; (China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102413, China) ; (Department of High Energy Physics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia) ; (Institute of Power Engineering Problems, Minsk, Belarus) ; (Institut fuer Sicherheitsforschung und Reaktorsicherheit, Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, 52425 Juelich, Germany) ; (Physics Department, Aristotle-University, Thessaloniki 54006, Greece)
Publication	2001
Imprint	29 Jun 2001
Number of pages	24
Published in:	Radiochim. Acta
Subject category	Particle Physics - Experiment
Abstract	Experimental studies on the transmutation of some long-lived radioactive waste nuclei, such as ^{129}I, ^{237}Np, and ^{239}Pu, as well as on natural uranium and lanthanum (all of them used as sensors) were carried out at the Synchrophasotron of the Laboratory for High Energies (JINR, Dubna). Spallation neutrons were produced by relativistic protons with energies in the range of 0.5 GeV\le E(p)\le 1.5 GeV interacting with 20 cm long uranium or lead target stacks. The targets were surrounded by 6 cm paraffin moderators. The radioactive sensors mentioned above were positioned on the outside surface of the moderator and contained typically approximately 0.5 up to 1 gram of long-lived isotopes. The highly radioactive targets were produced perfectly well-sealed in aluminum containers by the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Russia. From the experimentally observed transmutation rates one can easily extrapolate, that in a subcritical nuclear power assembly (or "energy amplifier") using a 10 mA proton beam of 1 GeV onto a Pb-target as used here, one can transmute in one gram samples of the isotope within one month about 3 mg ^{129}I, 21 mg ^{237}Np, 3.3 mg ^{238}U, and 200 mg ^{239}Pu under the same geometrical conditions. Our observations show, that the transmutation ability of our system increases linearly with the proton energy within the energy interval studied.
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