Use of accelerators for nuclear energy generation

In this write-up, the author touched upon several topics of current interest. Accelerator driven sub-critical reactor systems-ADS, muon catalyzed fusion, accelerated beam induced ICF, superheavy nuclei and nuclear isomers, which apparently are not directly related to each other. One common ground among them is their promising potential for nuclear energy generation in continuous or burst mode. The second important point is that realization of the above schemes is crucially dependent on the development of suitable particle accelerator systems, which have an order of magnitude higher capability in terms of beam power than currently available. It is also becoming clear that the development of such high power particle accelerator systems is turning out to be the most challenging task. It is quite possible that future nuclear technologies will become critically based on these high technology particle accelerator systems, and therefore, it will be prudent to vigorously pursue developments in particle accelerator technology in the coming years. (author)