The European Spallation Source Study, ESS

A Europe-wide effort to study a next generation pulsed spallation neutron source has been conducted over a period of 2 years. The work lead to a concept for a 5 MW beam power short pulse (1 μs) facility which is driven by a linac of 1.334 GeV of energy and 50 Hz repetition rate. In order to achieve the desired short pulses, the linac beam is accumulated in two compressor rings which are filled by charge-exchange multiturn injection and emptied over a single turn. Although this feature, as well as the resulting high power of 100 kJ per pulse, pose special requirements to the design, many of the main parameters of the project can be considered as prototypical for an ADTT-facility. This includes the 100 mA current requirement for the linac as well as the technology of the liquid metal target which was chosen to optimize neutron generation and make the high power density manageable. 11 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab